Wheelchair Accessible Safari in Amboseli National Park

Four game drives over three days and two nights in Amboseli National Park — elephants at close range, Mount Kilimanjaro across the plain, and an hour watching a cheetah.

Getting There
The Vehicle and the Roads
Where We Stayed
The Maasai Staff at the Camp
Kilimanjaro
The Animals
How We Organised It

Getting There

We drove down from Nairobi on the Mombasa road, southeast to Emali and then across toward the park. It took most of a morning. For long stretches it is a two-lane highway carrying freight between the port of Mombasa and Nairobi, and it is hectic — lorries, matatus, and close overtaking.

I enjoyed it anyway. You pass through small towns and roadside markets and a lot of Kenyan countryside that you would not see from the air. There is also a short flight from Wilson Airport in Nairobi to the Amboseli airstrip.

We were in the park for three days and two nights, and did four game drives in that time.

The Vehicle and the Roads

The vehicle was the same setup I used in Nairobi National Park — a Toyota Land Cruiser troop carrier with a pop-up roof, one passenger seat removed, and long aluminium channel ramps for loading. I described that vehicle and the transfer process here: The Vehicle: A Land Cruiser With a Seat Removed and Long Ramps.

View from inside the safari Land Cruiser: the pop-up roof is raised, the guide stands at the open front looking out, the driver is at the wheel, and a passenger sits at right. Through the opening, an elephant walks across open plains with Mount Kilimanjaro on the horizon.

The tracks in Amboseli are bumpier than the tracks in Nairobi National Park. Dry lake bed, corrugated dirt, washboard sections, and ruts cut by the rains, with stretches where the vehicle pitches side to side.

I rode in one of the vehicle’s fixed seats and used a gait belt for trunk support, wrapped around my torso and the back of the seat and buckled, in addition to the lap belt in the vehicle. It held me against the seat back over the rough sections, and it made a real difference to how the drives felt.

Where We Stayed

We stayed at Kibo Safari Camp, a tented camp outside the park boundary — a short but bumpy drive from the main gate, and as far as I could tell the closest camp to the gate without staying inside the park. I am writing it up separately: Kibo Safari Camp, Amboseli — Wheelchair Accessibility Review.

Two Maasai staff members in traditional red and checked shukas with beaded jewellery help a seated passenger at the open side door of a green safari Land Cruiser. One steadies the passenger's legs while the other supports from the doorway. Faces are blurred for privacy.

Maasai greeted guests at the camp and they helped load and unload me from the vehicle before and after every drive. They asked how I wanted to be moved and listened to the answer, and they were warm about it every time.

Kilimanjaro

Kenyans have a line about this: Tanzania has the mountain, but Kenya has the views. The mountain sits across the border in Tanzania, and Amboseli looks straight at it. Having seen it, I think the line is fair.

It rises out of flat plains with nothing in front of it, so on a clear morning you get the whole thing — the broad shoulders, the snow on the summit, and an acacia or a line of elephants in the foreground. We had clear skies for almost all of our time, but everyone said that was extremely rare. It is usually clearest early and late. By midday the clouds usually build up around the base and the summit will appear to float above it.

A line of elephants of several sizes, including calves, walking left to right across dry golden grassland, with the snow-capped summit of Mount Kilimanjaro filling the sky behind them.

The Animals

We got close, repeatedly, without a long lens. Over the four drives we saw elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, zebras, baboons, a cheetah, and a lot of birds. We saw a “super tusker” bull elephant. Lions were spotted during our time but eluded us. Next time.

The elephants were the constant. Amboseli is known for its families, and we had them crossing the track in front of the vehicle with calves tucked in among the adults, spread across the marsh in groups, and walking the open plain in long lines.

A large bull elephant with long curved tusks walking through green marsh grass, photographed side-on at close range in bright morning light.

View from inside the safari vehicle over the seat backs: a large gathering of elephants spread across the dry plain, some in a group at left, others walking alone, with white cattle egrets standing in the grass among them.

A wide view across golden grassland at dawn with elephants and calves scattered in a line across the middle distance, a treeline behind them, and the broad mass of Mount Kilimanjaro rising through haze in the background.

Amboseli is popular, and at a good sighting you are often one of a line of vehicles. When elephants crossed in front of us there were half a dozen other Land Cruisers stopped behind.

An adult elephant crossing a dusty track directly in front of the camera with a young calf tucked beside her and an older calf following, while a queue of six or more safari vehicles waits on the track behind. Passengers' faces are blurred for privacy.

On the last drive we found a cheetah hunting and stayed with it for about an hour. Most of that hour was the cheetah being patient — moving through the dry grass, stopping, sitting, reading the plain, and moving again. It was awesome. Perfect ending to a fantastic safari.

A cheetah walking through short golden grass on an open plain, head raised and turned to the left, its spotted coat and long ringed tail clearly visible against the dry ground.

Several safari vehicles clustered along a dirt track with passengers standing up through the open roofs to watch, while the cheetah walks past close to the rear of the nearest vehicle. Faces are blurred for privacy.

How We Organized It

We booked through Accessible Travel Kenya, a Nairobi-based company that specialises in travel for people with disabilities. They booked everything for us:

The room at Kibo Safari Camp
The guide
The Land Cruiser, with the seat removed and the ramps
A second vehicle that carried my scooter
The drive down from Nairobi and back
Water and food for the drives

More about how they work is in my Nairobi National Park write-up.

Our guide was Antony — Tony — and he can be requested by name. He taught us a great deal about all of the animals we saw and what they were doing. On accessibility, he was willing to listen and willing to help, every time. I am very grateful and had a great time getting to know him. Highly recommend.

Hempstone was our driver and representative from Accessible Kenya who helped with the day-to-day arrangements. He was our main host for the entire stay in Nairobi (along with Gerald, who was also great). Good guides –willing to share info but also provided space/alone time.

This reflects my personal experience and observations. Accessibility features, equipment, staffing, and road conditions can change over time, so I’d recommend confirming current details directly with Accessible Travel Kenya, Kibo Safari Camp, or the Kenya Wildlife Service before you travel.