Woke up around 6:00 this morning after a deep sleep, went to breakfast, then came back to the room. It was mostly cloudy this morning, so I elected not to go to the pool, and read until about 3:00, had a late lunch so I didn't have to eat on the plane, took a shower, finished packing, and read until 6:30, when I checked out and caught the car to the airport. I had to go through two security checks, and the second one decided my manicure scissors were a hazard and confiscated them. I decided to use the restroom, only to discover it was down a circular staircase with no elevator, and since I'm not checking baggage, I had to drag it all down and back up again. As I'm sitting here, the KLM plane is arriving, so that's it for the day. Next stop, Amsterdam, then Atlanta, the Gainesville tomorrow around 6:00 pm. Long trip ahead! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Was asleep pretty early, but woke up around 2:30, and I don't think that I ever really got back to sleep. Finally got up a little before 5:00, and finished doing my packing and was ready to go before our wake up call at 5:30. I went over to the mess tent, and was shortly joined by the other two ladies, where we shared our last breakfast together. We had a royal send-off, with the whole crew standing at attention, and gratefully accepted our envelope of gratuities. I had slipped a separate tip for each of the main leaders: Luke, Morissa, JB, and Henry. After the ceremonial speeches and numerous thank yous, in Swahili, that's Asante Sana, and we piled into the Open Jeep and headed out. It was quite a cool morning, the sun hadn't really come up much yet, and it was a very cloudy and damp day, which only got progressively worse as we headed up into the Highlands, where we were met with extreme winds and clouds and cold weather. We stopped once at what was supposed to be a beautiful lookout, but it was completely fogged in, so we didn't stay. I had learned that there was a ceasefire in the Iran war, so I spent some time online trying to see if I could re-book the Qatar flight, and for a while there it looked like I would be able to. They had some seats open but then their website sent me around in loops and circles trying to reconfirm who I was, changing my password etc etc, until eventually I finally was able to get through, only to discover that the flight I wanted was full and I wasn't able to book it anyway. The next flight was $600 more and extended the trip to over 33 hours, so I decided to just forget about it and go with my original plan B. By then we were all so cold, Luke was bundled up from head to toe with only his eyes peering out from behind a scarf, and everyone else was pretty chilled. I was happy that I had put on several layers and my rain suit, which did a pretty good job of keeping me fairly warm, but we were all quite cold by the time we came off the Highlands. We stopped at a little tourist gift shop area for about 45 minutes or so, I just took one local around and used the restroom, which I was very happy to see were extremely well kept in clean, and then got back into the Jeep while the others went shopping and wandered around. You know me, I'm not much of a shopping or souvenir kind of gal. We were only about 5 minutes from the airstrip, where we climbed into a single engine prop plane. Apparently usually they charter a plane, but because there was only three of us they decided to just take the regular commercial flight, but there was literally no one else on the flight at all anyway, so it felt like a charter. At least this flight had two pilots, whereas our first flight only had one, so I felt a little better about that. It was only about 35 or 40 minutes before we landed in Kilimanjaro, just glimpsing the mountain top a couple of times between the clouds, as it was still a cloudy rainy day. It was much warmer in Kilimanjaro, however, when we got off the plane, it was feeling much more tropical, but still wet. We all said our good-byes, and headed our separate ways, though it wasn't long before we started texting each other and sharing our pictures and videos through WhatsApp. I was meant by Angel and we waited for the ride back to the hotel. I had considered going to the desk at the airport and trying to see if I could get the original flight that I wanted today, but by then I was so cold and achy and only really wanted to just lay down after taking a nice hot bath, so once I got back to the hotel, driven by the same lovely Samil that I had on my first night of arrival, I upgraded to a deluxe room so that I could have a hot bath, and also added a day room, so that I would have some place comfortable to hang out until I have to be at the airport at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. I did have a lovely hot bath, but when I pulled the drain plug, it backed up out of the shower drain and ended up flooding in the bathroom. Whatever. I lay down for the rest of the afternoon, happy to be warm and comfortable, though the air conditioning in this room was nowhere near as efficient as my last room and it was pretty hot for quite a while. No matter, I just rested and read until it was time for dinner. Once again, excellent service and delicious food, I had a lamb stir fry, which was plentiful and filling. Back in the room I watched one episode of the series I'm binge watching, but I kept nodding off so I'll probably have to watch it again. Same goes for the previous episode, I don't remember much of that either. Lights out by about 9:30! Glad to say the beds here are quite comfortable, so I'm looking forward to a good night sleep. Even though it didn't go exactly as planned, it was an absolutely incredible adventure, and I will have priceless memories that I'll never forget. I will say that it has prompted me to add another item to my bucket list. I realize that even though now I've been on six of the seven continents, I haven't ridden on all of those continents yet. Have decided I need to go back to somewhere in South America, and to Europe, so that I can then accomplish that goal. I may have to wait until Lola has passed, though, because apparently she's been a basket case since I was gone. I got a text from Michelle that she has ripped up the flooring in the bathroom and by the back door, and has been digging at the hole where her underground propane tank lives, and has otherwise been quite unhappy, particularly whenever there was any wind and storms. I had just replaced that floor when I put in the new toilet two summers ago, so that's another chore I'm going to have to do, though I doubt I can get it done before I'm scheduled to leave Michelle's, unless I decide to delay my departure, which means canceling the tickets I have for an event in Chattanooga. We'll see. I called and canceled my chiropractic appointment for Monday, and instead had my doctor order up an x-ray for my back, to see if I have in fact cracked a rib. I still have an appointment for the horses on Monday, so I'm going to have to work that out. Well, I've carried on long enough, so I'm going to get in my zzzzz's! Good night, my love!

Had a good night's sleep, woke up once around 4:30, but I guess I must have fallen back to sleep because the alarm woke me up at 6:20. Went about the usual morning of having breakfast and packing up, because today was another moving day. I decided to definitely not ride today, so they went off on the horses about the same time that I went off in the Jeep with Morisa, which Luke arranged for me as an alternative to riding. As we meandered across the plains, observing the usual collection of zebra, wildebeest, Thompson gazelles and Grant gazelle's, we did come across a pair of cheetah, a male and a female which is apparently rare, and we had hoped that we could watch them on the hunt, because they seem to be very thin and a bit on the hungry side. Unfortunately the female was walking in a direction that took them away from the herds, and eventually they just lay down and napped for a while. Once we got thoroughly convinced that nothing was going to happen there, we headed on and got to another gorgeous lunch spot on the brow of a hill overlooking a vast, animal populated valley. It wasn't too long after that when the horses and their riders arrived. We had a lovely lunch and then several hours of relaxation under the trees, mostly reading and enjoying the quiet, before we once again set off on our respective modes of transportation. We once again we're looking for some interesting wildlife, saw most of the usual, and one female cheetah that was traveling along on her way to something, but got lost once she passed the tree line. We got back to camp shortly thereafter, and I relaxed in my tent for a while resting my back. Once the team arrived on horseback, we once again conjugated at the bar and enjoyed gin and tonics and other drinks until dinner, enjoying each other's conversation. Had another lovely dinner, like having gourmet food from a fabulous restaurant out here in the middle of nowhere. Amazing! Dinner was a little bit later, but afterward I had my usual shower, and I'm quite ready for bed. I've made plans to have a shorter slower ride tomorrow, hoping that my back will be cooperative. Fingers crossed! Good night, my love!

Up bright and early this morning, I set my alarm for 6:20, and was ready to go by the required 7:00. Loaded up into the Jeep and headed out. One of the first things we saw was a couple of lions stalking something, then onto flamingo's and hippos around the shoreline of the lake. Then we had a long stretch where we didn't see too much, waiting to spot the leopard, which we never ended up doing. But we did see tens of thousands of zebras, which I'm told was the most zebra's that our guides have ever seen at one time. We also saw lots of wildebeests and hyenas and ended up with watching for cheetahs. We also spent some time watching two lions and two lionesses lazing around by the river. Finally ended up back at camp at about 1:30 or so, had lunch, and then retired to my tent for a while. There was a plan to go riding at 4:00 which I said at lunch I probably would not be going on. In fact I stated that I thought the riding portion of my adventure was probably done. Luke generously offered to arrange for someone to go with me at a walk in case that would make things better for me. But I considered it in this way. Would I want to ride my own horse in my own tack feeling the way that I feel right now? And the answer was no, in fact, hell no. My shoulder is still aching, though not too terribly except occasionally when I move it the wrong way and then it feels like someone stabbing me in the back. I hope it improves, but I took three Ibuprofen this morning and it didn't seem to help all that much. Though I do appreciate his efforts, and I may take him up on some of it, but probably not for a day or two. We got back to camp and it was quite pleasant for a while and then a serious thunderstorm came in and apparently blew down one of the shower and toilet tents, and Luke's tent, but in my tent things went well, I felt as snug as a bug in the rug even though the wind was blowing quite heavily. I relaxed for the afternoon as the storm blew over, then it was time for sundowners. One of the guys brought me some wellies, otherwise known as gumboots here, because I still had not gotten my boot covers returned. So I had joined the sundowners group, followed by another fabulous gourmet dinner (hard to figure out how they make such delicious food out here in the middle of nowhere!) , then took my shower and now I'm off to bed! Luke has offered an alternative riding option, which I may take up, but we'll see what happens, there is still some doubt as to the schedule tomorrow because of the possibility of more rain. It seems to have drained pretty quickly but apparently if there's another storm it may cause problems for the breakdown tomorrow. We'll see! Very flexible, this whole mobile camp thing. Still looking forward to the upcoming days, but frankly, I feel as though I have received full value for my money, even if I don't ride another day. Of course, I would still like to do a little bit more riding, but not if it puts my health in danger. Don't have anything to prove at this point in my life. Going to bed shortly, just going to read for a bit, then off to Nana land. Good night my love!

Woke up feeling fairly reasonable, actually slept past my 6:30 water delivery, but pulled my earplugs out at 6:45 just as he came back through to check on me. They are so attentive here! Took some painkillers, got dressed in my riding gear and headed to breakfast. After sitting there for awhile and reviewing the itinerary for the day, I decided I just wasn't up to the ride. I didn't want to exacerbate what felt like a possible cracked rib, and since the ride was all plains riding, where there wasn't likely to be sightings of any new animals, just the same wildebeest and zebras that have been in the area for a while (how blasé I sound now!), and I would be better served trying to make my back I feel better. So off they went for the ride at 8:00, and I went back to my tent, rested for the morning. I didn't fall asleep but I did read and I did feel quite a bit better by the time they returned from the ride and we had lunch. I also slowly packed the stuff that we would indeed for the next portion of our adventure, which was a Jeep Safari followed by a night in what they call a fly camp. The Jeep Safari turned out to be incredible experience. Of course, this is the typical way that most people safari, and I can understand why. As we were leaving camp, of course, we saw the usual wildebeest and zebras and hyenas and Thompson gazelles as well as a few more of the creatures that we have already seen, but we were really in the search of lions today. We went for a long period when we didn't see very much wildlife, but as we got closer to a place they simply call the "marsh" area, we started seeing things in droves. We saw some giraffes, which we have seen quite a few of previously, and then we came across a herd of elephants, watching the family dynamic for a while, and then we came across two lionesses sitting right out in the open next to a little water puddle, they paid us no mine whatsoever. We stopped literally within 10 yards of them, and watch them for a good 20 minutes or so as they slept and yawned and stretched and luxuriated. We are so excited to see lions! We went on the hunt for some more things to see and before long we came across a gorgeous cheetah, once again in the middle of a wide open area. Evidently they like to do that because it has them see what's coming from a ways away. We were in search of leopard at this point, and we were all anxiously looking for cats in trees, when we noticed a couple of more lions. We watched them for a little while, then we kept going when we saw that they were more lions further up the road. Then we noticed that there were two more lions that were beginning to stalk a herd of wildebeest, so we moved along to see what we could see. We watched for a while but it was clear that the lions were not going to have any luck hunting, because they heard them coming and ran off. By now it was getting late in the afternoon, and there had been a big storm nearby that started flashing a lot of lightning, so we started to head back to where we would be spending the night. We didn't get very far when we ran into four hyenas, quickly followed by a herd of buffalo, which apparently is the first sighting that Luke has had the whole season, then Tracy saw hippopotamuses swimming in the lake that we were by, and we also saw pink and white flamingos walking across the shoreline. It was a cornucopia of animals! I never imagined that I would see so many different species in such a short time! It has been a really amazing day! We arrived at fly camp, which still had the modern conveniences of a shower and toilet tents, the bar for our sundowner, although the sun had pretty much gone down by the time we got over to the bar. Dinner was served shortly afterward, today we had kebabs cooked over the fire, potatoes, coleslaw, and a slice of pineapple cooked in cinnamon. Absolutely delicious! A beautiful finish to a beautiful day! My back is feeling somewhat better but occasionally I still have a major pain when I move in just the wrong way. Will have to see how it pans out tomorrow. Meanwhile poor Tracy has contracted some sort of virus and is not doing very well. I gave her some zinc and Katja gave her some other medications, so hopefully she'll be feeling better in the morning. I was the only one that decided to brave taking a shower, but that's the only way I know I would get a good night's sleep. We are each in our own little dome tent, which is much bigger than my old dome tent, I can practically stand up in it. Tomorrow, we will start today at the same time but skip breakfast until later in the morning, and take the Jeep Safari again back to the camp we were at last night. There's a ride planned for the afternoon, I'm just going to have to see how I feel tomorrow. I hate to miss another day of riding, but I also don't want to be in horrendous pain. Signing off for the evening! Love you, babe! Good night!

Was up before my alarm, did a little packing, off to breakfast by 7:30, then back to finish packing and relax until 10:30. Went out to lobby, paid my bill and my reservation for when I come back, then waited for the driver to pick me up at 11:00. Somehow, he picked up another woman, Tracy, but his information was that it was a party of two, but when she said she was by herself, they drove off, never coming into the lobby, so I never saw him. About ten after 11:00, I spoke to a couple doing some birding pictures and when I mentioned I was going on a horse safari, they commented that they met a woman at breakfast, Tracy, who was also going on a horse safari. I realized that it wasn't likely there were two horses safari pickups at the same time and place, so I had the front desk reach out and let them know they left someone behind, and they quickly reversed course and came back for me. Only delayed us by about half an hour, and we arrived at the Wilderness Lodge just after 1:00, having has a lovely get-to-know you conversation. We got settled into our respective rooms, mine was Bucephalus, hers was Secretariat (whom she'd never heard of!), then had a gorgeous lunch, followed by a relaxing swim and sit by their little lap pool. Went back to the room for a bit before dinner, met for drinks before that, had a fabulous meal and settled down for the night by about 9:00. A wonderful shower and I was soon off to sleep! Good night!

Finally had the proper amount of sleep, and at the right time, too! Was asleep just after 11:00 and woke up before my alarm around 7:00. Had a leisurely breakfast, took a lovely walk around the grounds again going a couple of extra loops just to get my steps in, then did some hand wash to get my clothes all clean before we head out on the safari tomorrow, then settled down to read for a while. I made an appointment for a lovely 90-minute Swedish massage at the spa, which was fabulous! Then I sat out at the pool for another couple of hours before another fabulous dinner, where the management even gave me have a big glass of red wine in celebration of the fact that I have stayed here for 3 days. Well more like 3 1/2 but who's counting! They have truly been spoiling me while I've been here. They make sure my room gets cleaned when I'm out and about, and when I go to dinner at night they come in and do a fabulous turn down service, which includes redistributing the gorgeous mosquito netting, and closing all the drapes, etc. Tonight when I got back I found a lovely bar of chocolate on the bed as well! Wish I'd had that when I was drinking my red wine! But it has been a lovely stay here at the Planet Lodge airport in Kilimanjaro, I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling here. Glad I will be coming back here at the end of my Safari, but for right now, I am very excited about leaving on the real adventure tomorrow! Stay tuned! Good night my darling, love you!

Finally had the proper amount of sleep, and at the right time, too! Was asleep just after 11:00 and woke up before my alarm around 7:00. Had a leisurely breakfast, took a lovely walk around the grounds again going a couple of extra loops just to get my steps in, then did some hand wash to get my clothes all clean before we head out on the safari tomorrow, then settled down to read for a while. I made an appointment for a lovely 90-minute Swedish massage at the spa, which was fabulous! Then I sat out at the pool for another couple of hours before another fabulous dinner, where the management even gave me have a big glass of red wine in celebration of the fact that I have stayed here for 3 days. Well more like 3 1/2 but who's counting! They have truly been spoiling me while I've been here. They make sure my room gets cleaned when I'm out and about, and when I go to dinner at night they come in and do a fabulous turn down service, which includes redistributing the gorgeous mosquito netting, and closing all the drapes, etc. Tonight when I got back I found a lovely bar of chocolate on the bed as well! Wish I'd had that when I was drinking my red wine! But it has been a lovely stay here at the Planet Lodge airport in Kilimanjaro, I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling here. Glad I will be coming back here at the end of my Safari, but for right now, I am very excited about leaving on the real adventure tomorrow! Stay tuned! Good night my darling, love you!

Just when I thought that I was getting on Tanzania time, I found myself frustrated by not being able to fall asleep last night no matter what I tried. Two cups of sleepy time tea and a melatonin didn't help. I don't know what time it was when I finally did fall asleep but it was very very late. Then I apparently fell asleep so soundly that I slept right through my alarm. I ended up being woken by a phone call from reception asking if I would be coming down for breakfast. When I looked at my watch I saw it was 9:15! And breakfast ended at 9:30. So I very quickly got dressed and went down and got my breakfast, embarrassed that I slept in so late, then afterward headed back to my room and changed into my bathing suit, and ended up spending pretty much the entire day sitting out by the pool. I was careful to use sunscreen and to stay out of the sun, since we are equatorial here, and I remember the last time I got in the sun in an equatorial region when we were in Malaysia, and I had the crap burn out of me, and I didn't want to do that again! It was a lovely day of reading and relaxing. At around 4:00 I came back to the room, took my shower, and watched a little TV, then headed out to dinner just after 6:00 and had another lovely local disc called Tanzanian chicken. It was remarkably similar to the beef stew I had last night but it was delicious! I made an appointment for a massage for tomorrow and came back to the room with high hopes that I'll be able to sleep a little bit better tonight and get to breakfast much earlier in the morning. And absolutely gorgeous day weatherwise, about 80° and partly cloudy with low humidity. Absolutely gorgeous! Very nice to be relaxed, but starting to feel a little lazy. No doubt I will be fully rested in time for the horse safari. I cracked open my little bit of bourbon that I brought with me, and had bought a little bottle of ginger ale at dinner, so I'm having a perfect evening! I love you darling! Good night!