Amboseli back to Nairobi

 The last photo of the group and our truck.

The beautiful crested crane.

 Follow the leader.

 Elephants and the damage they do to the trees.

 A hyena in the marsh.

 A wildebeest keeping an eye on the hyena.

 The swamp fed by the runoff from Kilimanjaro...

And the dry bed of Lake Amboseli.

Friday, October 6^th.

When I woke up I sat on my porch for another excellent clear sunny morning view of Kilimanjaro and then went for breakfast. We started our trip back to Nairobi with a two hour game drive through the park to a different exit gate. We saw three crested cranes, more elephants, a hyena wandering the swamp, and spoonbills feeding in the swamp. The swamp is created by melt water off the summit of Kilimanjaro. After that we continued to the gate driving over the vast 'Lake Amboseli', which at this time of year is bone dry and what looks like water as you drive is actually a mirage. When we exited we had a 65 kilometre drive over a very bumpy, wash-boarded road to the highway.

There we went to a tour group meeting area where we left David and Jill who are continuing with NatGeo into Tanzania. This is the same transfer location where I got my shuttle into Tanzania for my Kilimanjaro climb. Then we continued on for another few hours before Joseph dropped me off the the airport in Nairobi. We decided to do this because even though I would have to spend 7 hours there is was better than fighting traffic all the way into Nairobi, staying at the hotel for a couple of hours and then fighting the traffic back. So said goodbye to Alan, Blaize, Chris, Morris and Joseph and camped out at the airport. Customs was easy and I bought an internet ticket and sat in a restaurant doing e-mails before grabbing something to eat and caught the flight at 8:50. Unfortunately, we got off to a bad start as two people missed the gate closing time and it took an hour to find their luggage on the plane and remove it. Planes are not allowed to fly with luggage and not the passenger for security reasons. Then I listened to music and tried to drift off. There were a number of Africans who seemed to know each other and they were into walking around the plane and drinking, which didn't help my sleep. Anyway, off to South Africa.