Today was our last day in Amboseli, and our final day of safari. We were on our last game drive by 6am, finding elephants immediately. The air was crisp but not cool, and Mount Kilimanjaro was hiding again, behind the clouds. The elephants were standing in swamp water, eating the tall grasses, totally unbothered by us.

Next, we found a pack of hyenas, 13 in total, howling and growling at a nearby lioness. Upon closer look, there were also cubs, sitting with their mother in the deep grass. We were just sure that the hyenas were going to attack the family. They were pacing, and quite menacing. We waited 30 minutes but they did not advance, eventually walking away. Joseph felt that the lioness must have had a kill with her, and the hyenas wanted to share. Or worse, they wanted the cubs.

We also observed a convention of ostrich’s, a male and 8 females, wandering across the dry lake bed. There were plenty of the usual suspects; gazelles, wildebeest, zebras and African buffalos. We saw more flamingos and storks, before we headed back to the lodge to pack up our gear. We wanted to be on the road to Nairobi by 10am, with a 5-hour drive ahead of us. The Ol Tukai Lodge was a nice stay, though it is very large with 80+ rooms, making it a little less appealing to us. The lobby is beautiful though, and the view of Kilimanjaro, on a clear day, would be unmatched.

The drive out of the park was tough, as was the drive to Nairobi, though we did eventually hit some paved roads. The traffic was very thick, with Joseph swerving in and out, to pass trucks. We were in the back row of the jeep and it was a long ride.

We arrived Nairobi around 3pm, and checked in to a day room at the Eka Hotel, near the airport, to get a shower and repack our stuff for the long flight. Having arrived to the airport, we found that our flight to NYC, which was supposed to leave at 11:35pm was now delayed to 2:15am. They had already rebooked us a new connecting flight to CMH, arriving 6:00pm. That will be 39 hours of total travel time, quite possibly a new record for the Magees.

We said our goodbyes to our travel pals, each with their own flights to take home. We’ve had an amazing journey together, with wonderful memories made. We’ll post final thoughts and a few more videos after we’ve had some shut-eye.

Tomorrow: NYC and Dublin, OH, hopefully!