Day 18 (Tue, 25 July) - Tsavo West / Amboseli

Sarb got up very early at 5.45am to find two rangers sitting round the camp fire.

A nice friendly pair, although the sight of the weaponry they were carrying was a litle disconcerting.

Once Joshua and Issa were up we discovered what the noises that Jo heard was last night. Apparently, Joshua and Issa had seen a pride of lions moving round the back of the campsite and not long after the rangers turned up. A little while later there was the sound of roaring some 300 yards off from our camp followed by the sounds of lions feasting and fighting over a kill.

Pretty exciting to be so close to a lion kill!

We packed our gear and drove through the park to a different gate from the one we entered and which would allow us to travel onto Amboseli. Quite chilly in the early morning. Saw a number of birds as we drove through ( [1], [2] ) and a herd of buffalo.

We got to the edge of Tsavo at about 9.30am. Here we stopped and had to wait for our armed escorts to arrive. The escorts are necessary as there has been bandit activity in the area we were to travel through; although nothing has happened in at least the last 5 years.

Whilst other tourists in their vans turned up Joshua deliberatly moved his van to the back of the caravan. He explained that if you were in the middle and the lead car took us there was a risk that you would have to drive like a loon to keep up. However if you are at the back you get to have an armed guard in your van and as such can pottle along at pretty much your own pace.

So bang on 10am the gates opened the lead car set off and the rest of vans and us in hot pursuit. It was the first time that we've been in a little party consisting of a cook, a driver and a chap looking like he wanted a part in Lock, Stock.

We travelled on dusty roads through small villages. We stopped at the Shetani Lava flows. Quite amazing to stand on these flows as you can follow the path it must have taken far up into the distant mountains.

Drove onto Amboseli and got into the park at about lunchtime. The landscape is incredibly barren. Very, very dry and dusty. So much so that we saw large twisters of sand moving around the plains. Mount Kilimanjaro utterly dominates the horizon. Your eye is constantly drawn towards it, as if to allow your brain to confirm that it really is that big.

Went for a game drive where we saw elephants wading through marshland. We then raced to a spot where some drivers had seen some lions.

We found the pride, with young cubs, lazing on the edge of a thicket. Nearby three buffalo were watching the pride carefully. Clearly uncomfortable one of the buffalo decided to charge the pride. The lions scarpered.

We stayed for a while watching the interplay between the buffalo and lions. As Joshua reminded us although the buffalo seemed to have the upper hand in the dark it would be the lions that would be doing the chasing.

Headed back to camp where we sat up late chatting.

During the night, Jo heard strange noises around the camp. She woke Sarb up who irritably told her put in her ear plugs and forget about it. Had to be said though that there was some very loud sniffing sounds coming from very close by that was a little worrying. Not to mention the sound of something being dragged.