On to Kenya and Amboselli National Park

The drive to Namanga after leaving Arusha was about the worst ‘main’ road in Tanzania that I have ever traveled on. It was so narrow and dangerous. Fred our driver knew us by now (especially Roman’s mom) and kept speeds down to a minimum (pole pole as they say in Kiswahili..take it slow). Despite the road, the scenery towards the border was beautiful. We passed through a mountainous area with many Masai herding their animals to grassier ground. The border was hot and complicated and not a nice experience. Before leaving Tanzania you have to fill in forms declaring that you are leaving an East African country. When you get across the border you fill out forms again saying you are entering Kenya, another East Africa country. Then when you get into the Kenya Immigration office you need to fill out new forms and hand over cash to purchase a Kenyan entry Visa. The whole process was hot and tiring. Fred had to do it all as well and have the safari truck registered to leave Tanzania and the insurance forms and safari license verified to enter Kenya. Once across the border we headed straight for Amboselli National Park which is about an hour from Namanga. Here we forked over another bunch of cash for two days in the park. Funny enough, the 30 or 40 kilometers of road before entering the park had amazing wildlife. We saw a lone bull elephant, a family of giraffes and a whole bunch of Ostrich before we even entered the park. The ostrich were running in a group of about six along side the road. One of them veered out at one point and was running in front of the car. Fred clocked him at over 40 kilometers per hour!! It was hysterical. I caught the whole thing on video too but I am sure the camera was shaking because the road was bumpy and I was laughing so hard. Once in the park we headed straight for Tortilis Camp where we were booked to stay for two whole luxurious nights. We chose this tented lodge because my friend and fellow nephrology colleague, Marcello ‘Cello’ Tonelli from Edmonton was planning to be there with his wife Shannon and their two children Alex (5) and Bronwyn (7). We had hoped to meet them there for lunch but we arrived late thanks to all the hold-ups at the Namanga border.