Pictures of Amboseli and Tsavo 7-31 - 8-17-06
 

Just returned Friday night from another wonderful 18 days in Kenya. Saw more cheetahs and lions than ever before.

If anyone is interested in pictures you can
access them at link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...1&y=trmdvt

Jan

Thankyou so much Jan - these were incredible pictures! Loved seeing all the views of the camp and Ol Tukai, I'd like to make a point of staying at Ol Tukai one day - it looks fabulous!

Was the beach & the hotel at Mombasa?

Jan, you have some wonderful pictures! I love all of the elles. And the big tusks - incredible! And the elephant rescue. Where all did you go? You also saw so much from your veranda. When did you see all the animals from your veranda, during the day? Did you skip game drives? Hmmm. I may need to plan a trip to follow in your footsteps! The six cheetah - how special. The mom and baby giraffe, great! All the lions. Thanks for posting them.

Cindy

Jan,
Karibu nyumbani!
Wonderful elephant pictures – as always. Was the cheetah family a mother with 5 grown cubs? She must be a very competent – and lucky - mother in that case! Rachel is another lucky mother. Dieudonne looks like the perfect baby. Nice to see a famous elephant and mother like Echo. The hyena cub was so cute. The zebra haemorrhoids less so. I’m so happy the elephant stuck in the mud was saved. And it’s so nice to see the Tsavo tuskers again.
Asante sana.

Back so soon? Times goes just too quickly!

Great photos. So glad to see those big tuskers! Thanks.

Thanks for all your kind replies.

LyndaS: Plaza Beach is just north of Mombasa (probably about a 15 minute drive).

sundowner (Cindy): I spent one week at Ol Tukai Lodge in Amboseli and nine days at Satao Camp in Tsavo East. I didn't go out on regular game drives because so many animals were right in front of my tent. I went out once on the trip to Voi to see my older adopted elephant orphans.

Nyamera: Couldn't tell if it was a Mom cheetah with five cubs or not. They were quite a distance from the road.

If anyone knows of a simple website that one can upload a DVD video I could post the actual elephant rescue at Amboseli. My husband just transferred it from video cassette to DVD. I don't know if this is possible or not.

sandi:

Yes, time goes all too quickly when you are in Africa. I heard about the London terrorist thing and was hoping my boss would email to stay a few weeks longer until things quieted down (even though I wasn't going thru London) but no such luck!!

Jan, great pictures, as usual. I'm really looking forward to photos from Tsavo, a park that I haven't visited, but its high on my list.

Do you have any information on the policy re animal interference in Amboseli? I had thought that rangers would not interfere and rescue an animal-in-danger unless the predicament was caused by human activity or intervention, and this seems to be a case where an elephant got stuck in a mudhole. I don't think there's a shortage of elephants in Amboseli, so I'm wondering why they made the decision to interfere and rescue the elephant, which, while heartwarming, seems to go against the spirit of a wild reserve. The lions and hyena have a hard life, too, and I wouldn't begrudge them an easy meal.

Thanks, Michael

Michael,
Jan’s Tsavo pictures come automatically after the Amboseli pictures.

<b>Jan</b>:

Wow - what amazing photos. That elephant rescue must have been just heart wrenching to watch - and so uplifting to see him run free. Love all your kitty-shots, and the elephants crossing into the swamp makes those babies look tiny.

Glad you had a wonderful 18 days!

Thanks!

<font color="green">Cyn</font>

That was interesting to learn about the elephants trunks curled up, I guess I haven't seen a relaxed ellie before. Thanks for the sharing, Jan. Warning to others...don't eat lunch while viewing the zebra photo.I lost my appetite!

hi jan-thanks for the invite-wow i saw nothing at satao back in march-other than some oryx(spelling)-there was nothing out there at all.
oh jan, that dead elephant at satao-is the one way out about 10 0'clock from the tower under the tree? if so-thats the one a camp hand walked me out to it so i can film it.
ok thanks
d

Michael:

You are absolutely right. There isn't a shortage of elephants in Amboseli. I am not sure what the KWS policy is. It used to be helping animals with injuries caused by man. However, now there are several other elements added. Elephant Trust (Cynthia Moss's group) knows every single elephant from Amboseli and goes out every day and censuses them. They report injuries they see from spearings, etc.
Then you have tourists who also see things and report them to KWS. It does not make for &quot;good tourism&quot; for tourists to see truly suffering animals or one struggling for life and no-one helping. I suppose for this reason KWS acquiesces and assists with the wildlife problem. Perhaps this is the reason only a hand full of KWS were at the rescue but most of the men were volunteers from Ol Tukai.

I myself reported to the Sheldrick Trust a young bachelor impala, about three years old, limping badly at Satao Camp from what looked like a hoof problem or something stuck in the hoof. They sent Dr. Ndeerah down to look at it, but wouldn't you know it, the impala who had been hanging around close to camp when I was there was now out in the bush. He will come back later and try to locate the impala and see if something can be done to help it.

As you may know, anything unusual about an animal is noticed right away by the predators as a &quot;soft target&quot;. If they can fix the hoof he will live to a ripe old age, otherwise become dinner for lions.

Jan

Hi Jan,

I also thought the ele photos were fabulous and love that constant touching that the younger ones seem to love! I think it may be a cheetah mum and her 5 offspring and both she and the lioness have done a great job to get those offspring to that size, the food bill would be huge!

As to rescuing the ele bull, I can live with that interference although I don't like to see the lion and hyena starve either, but at the very least if the ele bull was not rescued, I would like to have seen a quick death, and not a long suffering death.

Kind regards,
Kaye

Jan,
I don’t know anything about videos, but as I would like to see the elephant rescue I found this:
http://video.google.com/

Thanks for sharing these, Jan!

Great pics... it almost makes me yearn for Amboseli again.

The elephants were amazing. I think I saw the same hyena den. We also stopped for a bathroom break at Oltukai. Great lions and cheetahs.

It looks like it was a little less dusty and barren there than in October.

Excellent pictures Jan! I'm reading a book now on Tsavo (Ghosts of Tsavo) and would love to visit there! Thanks for sharing your pics!
Aloha,
Dennis

Dennis;

It is a good book. I have it in my library. Try Tsavo some time. It is a special place.

Jan

The photos are better than ever this time Jan. You've claerly had the time to really get into taking some special photos - although the zebra haemmorhoids is possibly a step too far! There was really some action around the waterhole - great! Aren't those cheetahs well known - six together is pretty unusual and amazing. Could two be adults - sisters? I saw that once (on TV unfortunately). A single female hunting for six and succeeding seems too incredible!

If we want good reason to spend lots of days in a sigle place at the right time of year, your pictures are it.