Richard, our guide, says this little guy is no more than 3 months old, if that. I somehow never expected to see ostriches, and yet....

Yes, that’s Kilimanjaro in the background. Hasn’t been too clear so views have been mostly obscured.

Up at 5:45a for the morning game drive. The sunrise is spectacular.

Pretty nice digs.

Nicely landscaped grounds.  We’re the third door on the right.

The view from our little veranda (we can see elephants drinking at the pond):

It’s about a 5 hour drive to Amboseli National Park. No sooner were we inside the park, but the show began.

And so, for the next ten days, we will be in lodges and tented camps. I would guess WiFi might be scarce, so forgive me if I go radio-silent here and there, I’ll do whatever is doable.

It’s 6:30a on Monday morning, Merry Christmas, everybody! We have separated our stuff into “take” and “leave” (checked at the Nairobi hotel) - due to weight considerations for the short internal flights within the safari (on little 10-seater planes I’m sure) we’re only allowed a minimal amount. In 45 minutes, we’re off in the land rovers, next stop, Amboseli Natl Park!

Karen Blixen’s home.

Next up is the giraffe preserve. They are beautiful and are clearly well cared for - and they love to dine on little pellets the visitors feed them.

So, nearly 12 hours of sleep later 😎, we did a tour of Nairobi and stops at a couple of animal preserves. Nairobi is perhaps several notches below Venice on the “photogenic scale”, but the animals more than make up for it.

Stop number one is an elephant preserve.  They rescue babies who have become separated from their herd, or who were orphaned by poachers killing their parents.  Today they are having loads of fun rolling alternately in the mud and the red dirt.

We made it!

So, 13 hours flying from DC to Dubai, a 2 hour layover, and then another 5 hours from Dubai to Nairobi.  Our flight path took us over Syria & then right between Tehran and Baghdad along the Iran/Iraq border, as well down the length of Yemen and Somalia. Interesting neighborhood. 

We’re finally settled into the Nairobi hotel.  But we’ve been up for well over 30 hours straight, so the first order of business is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.   Details to follow in the clearer-headed morning.

Out and about in Washington DC, museum-ing and monument-ing, while visiting my brother and his family.

Last lingering, remaining moment on this trip....we fly by our lovely Mauna Kea volcano on the descent into Kailua Kona.