Amboseli National Park

Background Information

Amboseli National Park - on Kenya’s southern boundary provides possibly the most varied and enduring images of East Africa with its vast open plains, yellow-barked Acacia woodland, rocky lava-strewn thorn-bush country, swamps and marshes, and dry lakebed. Further west of the Reserve lies Namanga, the border town into Tanzania. Above Namanga, Oldoinyo Orok rises to over 2,760m (8,300 feet), its rocky heights still largely zoologically unexplored. The snows of Kilimanjaro, white and crystalline, form a majestic backdrop to one of Kenya's most spectacular displays of wildlife, thus creating Kenya's most sought after photographers’ paradise. Usually the whole mountain basks in the morning sun, or evening light, other times its snowcap hovers above the clouds. Sometimes it vanishes completely under a mantle of thick cloud. The heart of the park is fed by subterranean streams flowing down from Kilimanjaro’s glaciers. These create swamps, which form permanent watering places for the wildlife through times of drought. They are frequented by Elephant, Hippo and plains’ game.