Amboseli National Park, Kenya (June 10-11):
Tortilis Camp: This camp is near the Kenya/Tanzania boarder not far from Mt. Kilimanjaro. We had a spectacular view of the mountain from our camp. The area around this camp is mostly desert terrain, with a few isolated swampy areas which are formed by run-off water from the mountain. Animals congregate around these swamps for water and food.
Tents:
This is an example of the typical accommodations we had while on Safari. If you can imagine what a 4-star tent would be like, this is it. They all had concrete slab floors. The back wall is either wood or stone and has a bathroom complete with sinks, Western style toilet, and showers. They have hot/cold running water, with the hot water coming from solar powered heaters. Only the roof and sides are canvas tents. The forward area contains a standard bed, and most have a desk, sofa and chairs, night stands coffee table, etc. All had plenty of lights.
All camps had electricity powered from a big central generator, however power is only turned on from 6am-9am, and again from 6pm to 10pm. The camps all have a large central tent that served as a dining room. The food was very good and was usually a 4-course meal.
Dinner was late and usually finished up around 9pm. The management always insisted on providing an escort back to our tents after dinner. We thought this was a courtesy thing since it was dark out. We found out otherwise one night when we were awakened by lions roaring outside our tent. We instantly saw a bunch of search lights and heard a commotion from several guards who were on it right away. They drove the lions out very quickly and efficiently. We really appreciated the escorts after that.
The best game viewing is early morning and late afternoon. So as not to miss prime time viewing, our guide offered us a Bush Breakfast instead of the traditional sit-down at the lodge. This way we could do our early morning game drive and have breakfast around 9am. We expected to have something from a picnic basket on the side of the road.
We were pleasantly surprised when he drove up to a makeshift camp set up in the middle of nowhere with a full spread. They even had a chef preparing made-to-order omelettes.
I spotted this dust funnel on the way back to our camp one day. These are like mini tornados that form and burn out very quickly. We saw them many times.