We left our Nairobi hotel at a respectable 7.30 and headed east towards Kilimanjaro. Traffic was quite light and roads were tar sealed!!!!

Our first bathroom stop was 5 minutes down the road (one might ask why the culprits didn’t go before they left). After that had few stops.

The first stop was at a police road block – these have made for interesting experiences over the last couple of days- licenses get checked and requests for ‘compulsory donations’ are made- Cyrus is a tough nut to crack and successfully declined all offers to ‘donate’.

Stopped at a Masai village at the foot of Kilimanjaro – they put on a real show for us with welcome ceremony (with Rog & I invited to participare!). We couldn’t quite jump as high, but gave it our best shot. Roger had the facial expressions off pat. The medicine man introduced us to natural cures- including one for snoring (so I might slip some into David’s tea tonight). We also met the chief who told us he had two wives and seven children. They live in round mid houses that are constructed by the women (it takes about a month to build a house).

We had a sumptuous lunch at our lodge (Senterim Amboseli) then finished the day with a safari through the plains at the base of Kilimanjaro. When we arrived we could only see the very top of the mountain peeping above the clouds. By sunset the clouds had cleared. Sunset was exquisite.

Birds and elephants are the main feature of this park – we saw flocks of ostriches and large herds of elephants and their babies.

Tomorrow we climb the mountain (well a little way).