After a delicious lunch whilst Ian had a short snooze I wandered over to the waterhole but there was just a Marabou Stork there. It is known as the Undertaker Bird because apparently from behind its back and wings look like a cloak. It's also one of the Africa's Ugly 5 (along with Wildebeest, Hyena, Vulture and Warthog).
Just before 1615 we climbed back up the steep slope to the bar area and en route saw this Beautiful Sunbird (that really is its name) in the bushes. Sunbirds are probably Africa's nearest thing to hummingbirds as they are also nectar feeders, but they don't hover quite as much as their Central American cousins (lousy photo but the best I got)
We met up with our new guide Dickson, an absolutely charming man and someone I instantly knew we'd get on with. And what luck, we have a vehicle to ourselves again and once we were loaded in the truck he asked us the usual question about what we wanted to see and, as always, we replied "Anything and everything, whatever you can find for us". Game viewing is such a lottery, if you're too specific you can spend a lot of time driving past some amazing creatures so we feel it's best to be open minded. Dickson was very happy with our response.
Amboseli is famous for its large elephant herds although, when water is short as it has been until very recently, they are known to split into smaller groups. The plan for the afternoon was to go in search of elephant but of course stopping for anything interesting on the way.
Helmeted Guineafowl
Slender Mongoose
We then came across a huge elephant and I was astonished and a little scared if I'm honest when Dickson said I could get out of the truck for a better angle of shot (something I'd done briefly in Lewa 2018 but only after Joseph had got to know/trust me). Dickson assured me it was OK as he knew this elephant, but as I crouched down next to the truck my heart was in my mouth when this huge animal walked directly towards me.
But she just carried on round me.
And shortly after the rest of the herd followed on.
The sun was quite low by now so I took many different photos; some into the light, others with the light behind. They are mostly in chronological order but I have two cameras and they handle light in different ways.
Dickson had just spent 3 days with a photographer who wanted nothing else but elephant in silhouette but I don't really think I got it. I've included the side of the truck here so you can see just how close I was.
It was a tad scary when she suddenly turned towards me with her ears flapping (usually a sign of displeasure).
But of course she was fine and just moved on.
Dickson had me jump back into the truck if the herd went too far past me and he'd then reposition it so once again they were walking towards me.
At one point I was actually lying flat on my stomach with instructions to roll under the vehicle should a situation develop - yikes, I'm not sure I'm be able to move quickly enough these days.
We hung around for ages watching them and, instead of using their trunks to dig up plant roots as we've seen before, they started kicking and pawing the ground with their feet and creating a huge amount of dust (which of course did nothing for the clarity of the photos).
I wonder if this is considered Good Luck in Kenya, like being sh*t on by a bird in England allegedly is?
We spent about 50 mins with them and I felt incredible honoured that they tolerated me in their space and also that Dickson trusted me on sight to behave properly.
What a wonderful day!
Dickson then suggested that as the forecast was for a clear sunrise tomorrow we head back to the flamingos and photograph them in the soft, red, morning light. We jumped at the opportunity immediately even though it would mean getting up at 0430 so we could be ready to leave 0530.
Pretty much exhausted we drove more or less straight back to camp, showered and changed and went for dinner. At Tortilis the policy, even before COVID, is for individual tables so we sat looking out towards Mt Kili and enjoyed a fabulous 3 course meal served by David who, as there are so few people in camp, seems to be our personal waiter.
David asked us what we wanted for our wake up call and at what time and his face fell when we said 0430 - were not sure if it’s his job to get the tray ready for delivery to the tent or if he just didn’t fancy passing on the bad news. But, as there is always tea and coffee available in the bar area to help yourself to, we told him not to worry we’d sort ourselves out and he looked mightily relieved.
