We were supposed to start the day off with a hippo breakfast but we got a little side tracked. I guess for ten lions I can be a little late for breakfast. They had apparently just eaten. they looked quite full. Overstuffed even. Not that I would say that to their faces. Some of the young males were playing with each other, Mom, to the left, showed why you don't mess with lions. Nice kitty, nice teeth, really nice kitty. In addition to the lions a number of other predators and scavangers showed up to eat whatever was left over.

One of those who came hungry, or stupid, was this jackal. I have to give high marks for bravery but low marks for smarts. I can see a fight between this hyena and jackal going more than one way. There were also quite the assortment of vultures and hawks about as well.

We saw another couple fo hyena families on the way down to the hippo breakfast. Not as many hippos out this morning but breakfast was pleasant and we saw another crocodile or two downstream. There was lots of food and champaign and juice and it was a nice way to relax before starting our long journey home. Many pictures were taken, including the group shot below, that Ross took, with all of the drivers, Alex and the entire group.

We then headed off to the 'airport.' There was no terminal, just a strip of land that was reasonably flat and cleared. The plane landed and, fortunately, took us directly to Nairobi. Apparently there was a chance that there would be multiple stops on the way back. This would have been bad. I was not sure the plane would make one safe landing, let alone several!

We arrived safely in Nairobi and headed back toward the hotel. On the way we stopped at a gift shop/gallery in town which had a lot of nice stuff for reasonable prices. I got a cool mask to go with my spears. They had a guard at the door and kept it locked until a customer wanted to come in or out. Next our bus dropped me off at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was closed. Grrrrr. Additionally, the ATMs wouldn't take our cards, so it was just a bad experience. On the plus side we got to watch an armored car delivery, complete with a couple of machine gun toting guards. I could have taken a picture but...nah.

The bus picked us back up and we were off to the hotel. We had day rooms for the afternoon until we headed off to our flights in the evening. We did some shopping, including finding a wooden giraffe taller than us that Anne wanted for only $100. Unfortunately the guy in the store didn't know how much it would be to ship it to the US and the other store in the hotel that had them (for $350) would charge $200 plus to ship it. How very sad. They were really quite heavy too.

Our last meal in Kenya was quite an experience. There was a huge open grill with skewers of meat. We each had a wooden tray with a large square carved into it. Then a metal plate was fitted into the square. The chef came around with a huge metal skewer which had some kind of meat on it and - if it was a whole leg - carved a piece or three off for you or - if it was chunks - portioned off a couple of chunks for you. I had crocodile, hertebeest, grants gazelle, eland and zebra. They were all pretty good. Looking and tasting similar to beef or lamb in many cases. The crocodile was an exception, much more fatty and chewy.

After dinner it was off to the airport. Of course I needed to have at least one misadventure, and that was that they only allowed 1 (one) carry-on onto the airplane. Unless they liked you in which case you could bring a half dozen. They, of course, did not like me and I had my choice of my camera bag or my backpack. I gave up my camera bag, probably stupidly. Of course, I had forgotten that I had put my ticket from Amsterdam to NY in my camera bag pocket. Doh! Fortunately I had the sense to check the bag to Amsterdam instead of all the way to NY.

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