Our Trip to Ambroselli National Park

On Sunday morning, our driver, Joshua, arrived at 8 a.m. to take Malcolm and Patty Card and ourselves to Ambroselli National Park. Patty and Malcolm are the Team Leaders for the Field Staff here in Kenya. They are a wonderful couple and we were priviledged to be able to spend time with them.

Our drive to the park was quite interesting. It took about 5 hours and we arrived in time for lunch. We started out on some fairly good roads (few bumps) but a couple of hours into the drive we encountered some diversions (detours). These roads were less than perfect (about a -40) and with a short rain shower turned into mud slick roads. It is similar to driving on ice....for hours...up and down hills. Large trucks had a difficult time on some of the hills and a few didn't make it and ended up in the ditch. This road is the main road to Tanzania and is well used.

Along the way we saw many Maasai Herdsmen caring for their flocks of sheep and goats and herds of cows. They are semi-Nomadic and move their animals to where ever they can find water and suitable land for grazing. There has been a drought here and most of the animals that we saw were very thin. We could see all of their ribs. It is now the beginning of a one month rainy season so hopefully this condition will change. The Massai warriors (as they are still called) wear distinctive red garb once they have passed through the rituals to manhood. They can be easily spotted from miles away. Young children were also seen tending to the animals.

Along the way, we often encountered animals on the road and had to wait until they had passed.