A Real Off-the-Beaten Track, Adventurous Safari … a Christmas present to my parents, and the opportuity to spend the very best sort of quality time with them!!!
Christmas comes but once a year and after 45 years of buying my parents hit or miss gifts (mainly miss if you count the plastic knives, plastic jewellery or the ultimate … a gothic necklace), experience’s have taken over, and the poor things have to spend it with us … yes my husband & I and the wayward wee ones all jump on board!
2020’s Christmas adventure to Amboseli & Tsavo came true in February 2020, just before our lives changed forever.
After an easy & smooth-for-Kenya drive from Nairobi (Kenya’s capital city) to #AmboseliNationalPark (one of Kenya’s best known parks, known for its incredible views of Mt. Kilimanjaro and enormous amount of easy-to-see wildlife🐘🐂🦩🐆), we were collected by the lodge safari-vehicle to take us to the lodge. Now that was an experience 😲 possibly the worst road in Kenya we were NutriBulleted for an hour or so before we landed at the unique, interesting & rather beautiful #ElephantGorgeLodge; the kids in heaven after such an ‘adventurous adventure’, the adults … stiff … but happy!
The lodge itself is all about the views …. and what incredible views they are; Amboseli in one direction and Mt. Kilimanjaro in the other. The bedrooms, in my opinion were absolutely heavenly, comfortable, modern & with much glass walls the views made your eyes water (nb. if you travel here when there is a full moon, you can see the mountain all night too!!!); the team were absolutely exceptional …. and the activities …. well this is what made us even happier. Set on Noolarami Conservancy, a little conservancy just SE of Amboseli National Park, we were simply blown away by the incredible guided walks and sundowners on the conservancy (stretching our legs, letting the kids scream around without having to try to contain them, bush olympics, clambering on rocks, learning about local medicines etc. etc.) and the magnificent game drives into the very nearby national park, Amboseli. This gorgeous park goes from strength to strength in my opinion, it gets better & better; better views, the wildlife we saw was completely unbelievable, the birdlife next to nothing and the infrastructure was pretty dam good too!!!
After three days here, we were encouraged to drive the scenic-route to the next gorgeous lodge, Kipalo Hills, a little lodge bordering Tsavo West & East National Parks. A full day’s journey; if we felt we’d been nutribulleted before, we were in the commercial version now, toss in wining, winging, scrapping kids, a disgruntled husband who would have prefered the main road in his fast car and nearly Octagenerian grandparents with joint-stiffness … quite the cocktail-of-fun!!! But WOW what a journey, beautiful, incredible, diverse and indeed adventurous … with a surprise lunch on a river-bed on the way. I love an adventure!
Oh we loved #KipaloHills, we did, we did!!! A gorgeous little lodge perched on the side of the Mbulia Hills, again with fantastic views looking out across the 12,000 acre Mbulia Conservancy towards Mt Kilimanjaro in the distance. #Kipalo is just my sort of lodge, it is:
- beautiful and has only 8-bedrooms,
- is great value for money,
- works closely with the community,
- focuses on conservation,
- is relaxed (didn’t have to worry too much about wayward children),
- does a great job with their food
- an incredible swimming pool overlooking miles & miles of Africa
- and so many wonderful & unique activities!!! Ooooh I love an unique activity!!! Game drives, walks to see wildlife, bufferflies & birdlife close up; meeting the interesting conservancy guards and our highlight was meeting an ex-poacher (my father was a hunter so they had lots to talk about) who showed us around his cave where he lived in his days as a poacher.
We loved the local area though you are very able to go on game drives into Tsavo East & West …. as well as visit the DSWT Ithumba elephant sanctuary.
All in all, staying a little off-the-beaten-track and staying in little places when visiting two of Kenya’s most publicised national parks, Amboseli & Tsavo worked perfectly for us. Away from the crowds but oh so close to the action … and spending time with three generations whilst exploring this part of our beautiful country is completely priceless!!!
We cant thank these two incredible places enough for looking after us sooooo well!
My Final Thoughts:
Elephant Gorge – Perfect for those looking for beautiful accommodation, off the beaten track; our walk to ur sundowner, our sundowner & our breakfast overlooking Mt. Kiminjaro will live with me forever.
Kipalo Hills – Will forever remind me of truly uplifting natural beauty and a real experience amongst nature; kids swimming for hours in amongst millions of white bufferlies with views to make you cry ….. and the poacher, that was fascinating!
Price – the price for both places starts at USDD330 per person, per night which includes full board accommodation and meals, bottled water, tea & coffee, sodas, house wines, beer and non-luxury spirits, laundry, game drives (within the conservancy), night drives, bush walks, bush breakfasts … etc. a truly incredible rate for such intimate, special places. Contact Chania to book!
My advise – People go on holiday for very many different reasons, if you are looking to experience incredible natural beauty, off the beaten track, please do come here!
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Find out more about our family safaris that we have put together, for you, as a result of our adventures.
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Elephant Gorge Lodge, Amboseli … -
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The drive from Amboseli to Tsavo -
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Kipalo Hills Lodge … -
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Hi Chans,
You certainly have ignited my flame to get back home and into the wilds of Amboseli and Tsavo that I soooo love! Thanks for sharing xx