Finishing the Ride to Amboseli

Hello,

After a while our driver made the comment, “Perhaps I should have followed one of the other roads.” There were four paths that had intersected with our path.

He then added, “If we were on the old road we could be going faster. I thought we would be there by now. I don’t really know where I am.”

You must understand that we had not seen a road sign for possibly two-three hours by this time. “Well, hopefully you have a good sense of direction,” I suggested with no hint of distrust in my voice.

“I have an excellent sense of direction,” he assured us as he pointed ahead and a bit to the right, “I know that we want to go in that direction.”

Soon we saw another path that he swiftly turned on and away we went leaving our road stakes behind. It did not take too long before we found the real road. Now how anyone knew it was the real road was beyond me. It was more hard packed and much less smooth. Also some people lived close to it and I think one group could be called a village. We again saw a sign for Amboseli National Park following which the road improved greatly. I suppose things have to be good for the tourists.

We were to eat lunch at our camp and we did not get there until close to 2:30. Lunch closed at 3:00 so we rather quickly signed in and hustled off to fill these stomachs that had not had much since 7:30. We were grateful for the water bottles and granola bars that tided us over the long stretch.

Our driver told us, "Eat, settle in, and rest a bit. We will go out at 4:00 and stay out late since we were getting a late start."

We headed off to get the first glimpse of our tent that had a veranda added to it. There was not only a full sized bed, but also a couple small tables and two chairs. Then there was a bathroom in the back, small, but complete with a shower, toilet, and sink.

Then the crowning greatness was that we were in the last tent next to the park so we had an unobstructed majestic view of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Course I think most of the pictures have clouds in them, but we did see it better sometimes.

Paula