Our 8am flight from Wilson Airport to Amboseli left on time - the other passengers, a very nice, if initially reserved, English family, ended up being our safari companions for the next 3 days.
We were collected by Eric, but met by Jonathan, our full time guide, at 4pm tea, just prior to the afternoon drive.
We did wonder how he would improve on the slow safari drive back to Tortillis under Eric's tutelage......but then every day is a different adventure.
Tortillis was the lodge John had thought he was going to last year for his birthday until I whisked him off to Ol Lentille for a surprise visit, so an actual follow up visit seemed appropriate for my birthday celebrations!
Amboseli, a Masai name, means dust pan -and it would be uninhabitable if it wasn't for the underground water which forms marshy areas and means it is criss crossed by animal tracks on daily movements to and from the marsh and waterholes. The other saving grace is that the dust is highly fertile volcanic soil from Mount Kilimanjaro,which ensures nutritious grass. We did glimpse the iconic mountain in the evening light and on our final morning when the cloud finally lifted allowing brief but exhilarating views.
After our extremely lucky interaction with Echo's family enroute to the water -lucky as the group had not been seen for a couple of days and were probably eating in Tanzania before returning for water - we watched the animals enjoying the deep water of the marsh. The elephant, zebra, wildebeest and buffalo were in it up to anywhere from their ankles to their shoulders and along with the water birds they made for great sightings and iconic landscapes; the birds included sacred ibis, glossy ibis, spoonbills, blacksmith plovers and egrets.
We then saw a group of stationary and seemingly fixated land rovers in the distance, so joined them to see lions with a zebra kill - several were relaxing after gorging themselves while one mother and cub dragged the carcass (today's photo) to a safer spot under a bush where it was more easily protected from the waiting hyena, tawny eagles and vultures who only got to fight over the scraps left behind from where the carcass had been.
It was also fun watching them being chased by a young lion returning from a rest who hadn't realised the carcass had been moved and thought it was scaring them off.....the lion did look perplexed until she realised where it had gone!
On the way back to camp we also saw several dwarf mongoose.

Back in camp, before lunch, I went for a swim, in a usually cold African pool - that said it was good for swimming especially as I was the only one braving it. There were however a trail of people to the pool toilet block as it was the only place with sockets powered by the generator and consequently it had a hairdryer - I was surprised some of the men bothered but they did!
In the afternoon we set out with Jonathan and toured the conservancy which meant we could go off road - we had a great sighting of an elephant family wending their way to a waterhole then drinking and bathing in it - the evening light was amazing which made for more iconic scenes.
We also spotted giraffe, hippo, kori bustard, a flock of Fischers sparrow larks and ended the day by spending some time with a lazy pride of lions.
As the camp has capacity for 30 plus guests we ate our meals in families which made a change from the more normal large group meals - the food was excellent. Eating alone did mean that we could make our way down to our tent - for much need early nights - yes it was downhill which always meant puffing good exercise on our return in the morning !