Amboseli is a place of stark contrast, in dry season volcanic dust churns into spectacular whirlwinds. It is a park romanticized by travelers the world over as Kilimanjaro’s royal court. Despite its sometimes dry and dusty appearance, it has an endless water supply filtered by thousands of feet of volcanic rock from Kilimanjaro’s ice cap. These underground streams converge into two clear water springs in the heart of the park. The park owes its magic to glistening glaciers of Kilimanjaro which melt and flow through parallel volcanic rocks to gush out pure and clean water in the Amboseli swamps
Because Amboseli’s swamps are the only permanent source of water in the basin, they are the nucleus of this relatively and ecosystem and the drinking pot for man, cattle and wild animals during the dry season. Wild animals like cattle remain an integral part of the Maasai solid process and now bring in foreign currency.
In the wet season, wild animals make onto the drier and higher areas, which are inhibited by the Maasai. It is little wonder that since the 80’s Amboseli has been designated as a ‘man and biosphere reserve’. The ecosystem interlinked, that conservation here has been achieved through a history of sustainable land use practices.
It is also in this area that income generating projects such as Kimana wildlife sanctuary and community run campsites are located. The park is vast, the expanse only interrupted by the occasional trumpeting of elephants.
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