Kenya

After two days of elephants and other incredible wildlife, the highlight on this morning was the giraffe-necked gazelle, which I have never seen before.

The drive to Moshi - even from Amboseli - is not a short one. However, even if you fly from Amboseli (via Nairobi), you spend nearly the same amount of time traveling and three times the money....

It is an interesting drive -- the first time. Now on my fourth time, it's just a long drive -- even with the beautiful views of the countryside, Mt. Meru, and Arusha.

We stopped at the Arusha Game Lodge, which is very nice for lunch or an overnight. The monkeys clamber loudly over the metal roofs to the trees right above your lunch table. There are also zebras, waterbuck, ostriches, and large birds just past the lodge rooms.

Safari in Amboseli is similar to other parks in Kenya -- morning game drive from 6:30-9:00am, breakfast, relax at the pool, lunch, afternoon massage, evening game drive 4:00-6:30pm. Not a bad life!

With the jet lag, our son would get grumpy about 4:30pm and fall asleep on the back seat of the safari van about 5:00pm.

All the more elephants for us! The herds are in the hundreds, and when they cross the road right in front of you, pull out the wide angle camera lens if you want to get anything more than the elephant's eyeball.

We are heading to Amboseli National Park today! There are three main reasons to go to Amboseli: large herds of elephants, amazing views of Kilimanjaro, and an easy stop on the way to Tanzania. Indeed after Amboseli, the elephants in other parks pale by comparison!

It is a good 3 hours drive to Namanga, the border town of Kenya and Tanzania. Then it's about another 1-1/2 hours to any hotel in Amboseli.

We stayed at Ol Tukai Lodge. The rooms are divided into two parts: mountain view and elephant view, and they both deliver as advertised!

From the gorgeous blue swimming pool, you view out on elephants, ostriches, and buffaloes grazing peacefully at the base of Kilimanjaro.

Nairobi gets a lot of bad press, but there are a few interesting things to see and do there that even kids will like.

Adventures Within Reach started the day at the elephant orphanage at the Nairobi National Park. It is only open from 11am-12pm every day, so it's important to plan your day around this.

The rest of the day we spent in the Karen region, a quiet area just outside Nairobi. We had a nice lunch at the Karen Coffee Gardens, which has beautiful grounds with a large grassy area to stretch your legs.

Next we headed to the Giraffe Centre, which is a great place to visit for both kids and adults. Here you can see the rare Rothchild giraffes and a whole bunch of warthogs. However, the highlight is feeding the giraffes by hand from the second story deck. Face to face with their long, gooey, sticky tongues makes for some incredible stories and photographs!

The last stop of the day was the Karen Blixen Museum. If you are a fan of Karen Blixen and the movie Out of Africa, this will be a treat. The museum is located in her house, which you will recognize from the movie. Out front is a large grass yard on which our son chased butterflies and dragonflies for a good hour!

If you have a second day in Nairobi, you can easily spend the day at the butterfly park, the Nairobi Museum (reopening in February 2008), and an afternoon at the cultural dance center.

If you are coming from the U.S., be sure to allow some afternoon downtime because of jet lag.

For hotels, I would recommend the Giraffe Manor or Karen Blixen Coffee Gardens in Karen (both quite expensive). In the city center, there is the Silversprings Hotel (unimpressive 3-star, but centrally located and has a great workout facility and spa), the Panafric Hotel (a slightly nicer 3-star), or the Norfolk Hotel (upscale).

Things are very quiet in Nairobi at the moment. With the holiday, the roads are very quiet and there are very people walking around. There was a demonstration planned for January 3, but the government has shut this down, and is taking steps to keep things quiet. Hotels and restaurants are open, and the Riverside Shuttle is running as normal.