Game watching from your bed!

The tourists in Amboseli are quite clever. They have found a way to see the park, and us, without kicking up lots of dust in noisy vehicles – they go up in a balloon. We see these a lot when the weather’s good. They float above us, silently, and we carry on doing whatever it is we are doing, completely undisturbed.

I suppose there will be more tourists coming from the place with the water hole, but not too many. They seem to have finished one of the cottages. Close up, it looks quite fancy, but from the distance you can hardly see it. And, what’s more, the tourists can lie in bed and look straight at Kilimanjaro. And they’ll probably watch us as we take mud baths in the water hole. They won’t need a balloon!

Sharing the water hole

Well, this morning I went for my usual bath and drink and found some other visitors. The place was packed with giraffe, all browsing around the area. I guess the water makes the leaves more tasty. And then, as I got closer, I noticed the birds – so many of them. Like me they like to drink and bathe. The water is so clean and fresh I don’t blame them for liking it. There’s enough of it to share.

I also noticed a neat little cottage, not far from the water. It’s not finished yet, but I bet, when it is, it will be a popular place to stay – it’s got such a great view of the water hole

Making roofs from straw

Back at the site I saw something else that was strange – people sitting in great piles of dried grass, hacking away at it, then tying it together. Some animals like to eat dried grass – humans, it seems, use it on their houses to keep the rain out. Actually it looks pretty cool, in more ways than one, and blends in well with the landscape. I can see these builders care about the environment.

And those brick making machines – well, they just keep going…

More mud baths

Each week when I go for my mud bath I see new things. This time there was a new building with a grass roof. It looks straight at Kilimanjaro. During the night I had a look inside. It’s big enough for me to sleep in, if I could get through the door!

And I’m not the only one taking baths in this place. One man seemed to enjoy his outdoor bath as much as I do. We're not so different after all!

Making myself popular

This week I took the family to the new mud bath. It was less muddy and more drinkable and we spent ages just drinking and cooling down. Mum was pretty pleased with me and says I can wander off more often if this is what I find.

The men were still there making bricks as usual and I see that the buildings are growing. There were also some tents and some new people who sat and watched us through binoculars as we drank. We stayed quite a while. I’m going to be pretty popular after this.