We reluctantly left Amboseli to return to Nairobi. The mountain majestically revealed itself to us for one last time. The traffic was fine until we hit the last 20 km. The first roundabout on the highway took 30+minutes to negotiate – as usual the police were making a half hearted effort to direct the traffic and were not prioritising correctly. It is so tiring being in such traffic – I suppose the people who do it every day get used to it. The ringroad is being built but cannot see completion anytime this decade!!

Last Saturday we (Steve, Luke and I) went hiking in the Rift Valley – a longstanding arrangement with #5 – Angela and Philip. We left home at 06.30hrs armed with picnic breakfast and lunch and set off to Mt Longonot approximately 1 hour away.(a dormant volcano rising700m above the Rift Valley floor) We parked up, had breakfast and prepared for the climb. There were parts that were extremely steep but after just 1 hour and 15 minutes we reached the rim of the crater, where we rested for a short while, took photos and rehydrated. We set off for the anti-clockwise hike around the crater rim (2-3 hours according to the guide book!!) The highest peak was shrouded in mist but even so looked quite tough. Luke was soon complaining – descending even the small rises was technically challenging due to erosion of the ‘paths’. We were relieved to reach the highest point – stopped, had snacks and regrouped. It was supposed to get easier from now on…. And in parts it did but some of the descents were very tricky, and some stretches of the path were treacherous with steep drops on either side. I was very afraid of falling, especially tripping so had to tread carefully which was tiring. Eventually about 2/3 of the way round the path improved, but by this time after about 10km of difficult terrain I was tiring a little. As we started the final descent my left foot started to hurt with the pressure on my toes from the downward motion. I so wish I could have changed my footwear at that point ….. Poor Steve was now carrying 3 backpacks as it was all I could do to stay on my feet without being weighed down as well! I ended up walking backwards on the steepest parts – thank goodness for my walking pole. I was so relieved to see the car and the tar road looming in front and hobbled into the parking area just more than 6 hours after we had set off. We were all covered in dust, my face was streaked with dirt – in fact I looked more like I had done a shift down a coal mine!! Luke also made it – after much ‘beep beep beep’ – don’t ask me next time Mum!! Taking my boots off was fantastic, to stretch out my toes felt SO good. We ate our lunch then were back home by just after 16.00hrs. We stripped off in the laundry as we were SO filthy. (not sure how everything came clean but it did) Anna brought tea upstairs and we showered and fell into bed! After 1 hours sleep I watched the 2^nd half of the Nigeria game, then had to get up and dressed to go out for a BBQ. We had planned to watch the England vs US match with some US embassy friends. It was a relief that someone else was doing the cooking. We actually managed to stay awake for the WHOLE game – a miracle, but what a joy when that final whistle was blown and we could go home to bed!!

So, now to prepare for our summer vacation in UK. The weather has been quite gloomy this week and it is dark by 18.30hrs, but it is the shortest day next week!! Still we will be in UK by then for their longest day! We arrive on Sunday 20^th June in the morning…..

Steve’s 50^th birthday has been looming on the horizon, really since Easter – we knew there was a UN retreat coming up and it was likely to clash and we did not know where the event was to be held. Finally they agreed on Amboseli – a National Park in the South of Kenya with Kilimanjaro as a backdrop AND families were invited to accompany since ISK was to finish on 4/6. How fabulous – birthday sorted!!

On the evening of Monday 31^st May 2010 I organized a small drinks evening at our house to celebrate the birthday with friends and neighbours – it was a public holiday the next day so worked in well. We had about 35 people over for drinks and snacks – my snacks evolved into a real feast but not quite a buffet – I was pleased with the baking and preparing I managed to pull off after a hastily sent out invitation – Steve had been ill for more than a week and I had been awaiting a recovery…

06/06 Travelled to Amboseli – not a bad journey. Lodge in delightful setting with bush to one side and Kilimanjaro to the other. I was disappointed about the cloud cover and figured that morning would be the best time to see the mountain in all its’ glory. Took a quick safari around 4PM to get our bearings.

07/06 Steve’s 50^th Birthday -Woke fairly early so Steve and I decided to pop out and see if the mountain was clear of cloud … There was a layer of cloud but the snow-capped peak was visible. We decided to go a little further around a couple of corners to get a better view of the mountain which we did, and some distance away we could see 3 safari vehicles looking at something that from where we were was not obvious. Being nosy we decided to investigate and to our delight found them watching 3 fully grown lionesses basking in the early morning sun. After a photo call we elected to hurry back to the lodge to wake the children. They hurriedly dressed and I took them back to where we had seen the spectacle some minutes earlier but alas the lions had moved on.

In the afternoon we took another drive, heading for an observation hill a few kms from the lodge. On route we came across plenty elephants bathing and playing in a swamp. The stationary beasts were lined up with their bottoms to the road almost like a picture from a kid’s story book. We finally got to the hill and parked making our way to the top to enjoy a superb panorama. On the way back via a circular route we were lucky to see a herd of zebras on the run. Initially we wondered if they were being hunted but it turned out they had been spooked by some Masai who were wandering along.

The evening at the lodge was great fun… champagne under the clear starry sky in the bush followed by a dinner and dancing with a live guitarist. There was birthday cake presented in the usual way with the hotel staff parading, banging kitchen utensils as makeshift instruments and singing ‘Jambo Bwana’, a song synonymous with tourists and/or birthday’s. Later on we attracted the attention of some real tourists who were curious as to what was happening with all the noise and music. They even joined in – I am sure the lodge had not seen such festivities in a long time. We retired to bed late – Steve was a little the worse for wear and snored ALL night!! Grrrrrrrrr !!

08/06 Left the lodge at just after 6AM with the kids and 2 of Steve’s team – Greg from NZ and Kristen from US. Steve was under the weather from previous night’s festivities so I left him in bed! We set off and I was not sure where to take them but I wanted to go a different way to the previous days. Very soon we came across hyena with babies sleeping and 2 older cubs arousing … one took off and started worrying a warthog, who was having none of it!! There was a herd of elephants in the distance with Kilimanjaro as a backdrop along with a lone balloon – a discussion about out individual thoughts about taking a balloon ride ensued – definitely not my thing I would be too scared of breaking a bone on landing!! All the time the sun was rising and the light was improving for photography. Further along we came across a lone bull elephant with a rather large appendage which caused a ripple of amusement in the car! We made it to the lake and tarried on the causeway to admire the birds, reflections and light on the water. Anna took loads of shots. Greg, a keen birder, was whooping about the diversity and sharing names of birds with us. With time pressing on towards breakfast and still a distance from the lodge we reluctantly set off aiming to return via a circular route. The road was quite corrugated so I picked up speed to smooth the ride. About 1.5km from the lodge we could see something in the distance coming out of the bush to our right and walking in a line quite a distance away. I could not work out what they were – very dark coloured but too small for wildebeest and the movement seemed feline. Not wanting to disappoint, I kept quiet - next to me Greg was having similar thoughts …. They were lions – 14 of them! The dark colour was due to them being caked in mud, presumably having just come out of the swamp. I stopped the car and we waited as they came from our right and crossed in front of the car – 2 adult females first, one lactating, followed by 10 cubs of varying ages playing and tumbling in the grass, then 2 males at the back. The whole process must have taken about 5 minutes from spotting them to them crossing in front and disappearing off to the left. There were no other vehicles around – we had the scene all to ourselves –what satisfaction and split second timing – we could so easily have missed them had we been 5 minutes earlier or later. Anna had broken her 10year jinx of never having seen a lion in the wild – yes 10 years in Africa and each time we had seen lion she had not been with us. She so nearly did not get out of bed that morning!! Later that day it was SO exciting downloading and greedily looking through the photographs… The kids made a movie blending photos on Anna’s new Mac Book Pro and using the imovie application, with ‘Circle Of Life’ as background music. It was shown to the retreat at the end of the day.

09/06 - Up early for another safari. Saw wonderful hyena – 5 of them – they obligingly stopped and put on a show of playing and grooming right next to the road. The birds on the water were once again breath taking and we were disappointed to have to break and go back for breakfast. I spent the morning sorting through photos of the birthday night and the retreat to put together another movie using the music of ‘Hard Day’s Night’ ‘Happy Birthday’ by Altered Images and finally ‘Dancing Queen’ Once again this was shown at the end of the day’s proceedings to the people on the retreat, who I might add had flown in from all over the world!! – Bangkok, Geneva, Rome, Panama, Washington, Samoa and then many nationalities from HQ in Nairobi.