The Beauty Of Amboseli

Footprints Together with the records of other notable ornithologists (Frederick Jackson, Anton Reichenow et al) this became the basis for all later records.

Described by Reichenow as ‘a very modest man, unassuming and with great personal charm’, Fischer’s bird discoveries in the Amboseli region included Fischer’s starling, Fischer’s sparrowlark and straw-tailed whydah.

Thomson described his 320 kilometres (200 miles) across quite uninhabited desert country before reaching Taveta – which he achieved within a fortnight of leaving the coast – as ‘the very ideal of a God-forsaken land’.

This trek brought him to the threshold of Maasailand, by which time he had been deserted by many of his men.

The more those who remained with him heard about the Maasai, the more their fears grew. The formidable Maasai clans were not even friendly with each other; let alone other intruders.

The first route he chose northwards was by the southern and western slopes of Kilimanjaro. This, had he taken it, might still have taken him across the Amboseli plains since, after leaving Kilimanjaro behind him, Ol Doinyo Orok – Namanga Mountain at 2,526 metres (8,287 feet) – would have been his most obvious landmark. He was frustrated by the formidable combination of the Maasai and the weather and was forced to retreat, ultimately returning to Mombasa to reprovision and enlist more men.

“A thunderstorm on the mountain is an awe-inspiring sight”, he said, referring to Kilimanjaro picturesquely as “that cloud-sucking pinnacle” and news that a great war party of Maasai, about 2,000-strong was in front of him was even more intimidating. Nor was he enchanted to 28