It's good to be back in Amboseli and see familiar elephant faces. Everything is growing and flowering and Amboseli looks like the Garden of Eden. Four big bulls are in musth and are waiting for the females to come into estrus. With plentiful food, the elephants are energetic and we are often surrounded by young elephants running between families and challenging contemporaries to play-fight.
Trunks entwine as they strain against each other in pushing matches.
After the charges of Tsavo it is good to be ignored as harmless spectators again. Old Bull is still with his male companions in the Serena swamp and is not yet in musth. Our primary family is nowhere to be found. The matriarch was last seen 10 kilometers to the north of the park and has vanished into the unfenced spaces of Maasailand. Surface water and plenty of excellent food allow her to go where she pleases.