The first night in Tanzania we stayed in a reasonably sized town called Arusha. The campsite also serves as a sanctuary for reptiles, aptly named 'Snake Park'. Our tents were set up between the cooking area and the crocodile cage and James shared a shower with a stray tortoise.

We left our truck behind at Arusha & jumped in open-top safari jeeps for a few days in Serengeti National Park. On our game drives we saw the usual, plus we added the following onto our list: bat-eared foxes, banded mongoose, dik dik (smallest of the antelope family), fish eagle, hyrax (rodent). The coolest thing we saw was a leopard dragging a kill up a tree.

We also had to stop for a tower of giraffe in the middle of the road. Two males were having a fight; standing side-by-side retardedly waving their necks around and getting tangled under each others legs. Very funny. First we thought it was a courting ritual before our guide corrected us.

The next night we camped on the rim of the Ngorongoro crater. This has been the prettiest place we have stayed so far. The safari in the crater is restricted to 6 hours per vehicle so we got up in the dark to make sure we got there early enough for animal breakfast time. We took the little jeeps down the slopes into a field shaped like a giant bowl 20km wide. This place was chockers with animals, you couldn't throw a stick without hitting something. More impala, more zebra...boring...hyena, rhino, warthog families, flamingos, then a Kori Bustard bird in a mating pose with a big balloon shaped plumage blown up under its neck which apparently is quite rare to see. We saw hundreds of wilderbeest walking in single file to water and 3 male lions lying in the sun, getting up to pee on a jeep tyre. Lunch was beside a hippo-infested waterhole and we had to eat in the car because kites would swoop down and steal food out of your hands. Not very pleasant as they have claws like razors. When our 6 hours was up, we headed back to Arusha before taking off on 2 long driving days towards Dar es Salaam.

Driving in the truck is not so bad. We spend the time waving at kids on the side of the road and reading lots of books. The roads in East Africa are narrow and sometimes are not covered. As the main highway runs through lots of little towns and villages, there are lots of speed bumps and the limit is restricted to 50-60km/hr. In three weeks we came across 8 road accidents, most involving trucks doing stupid things like overtaking on a blind corner. We always wear our seatbelts :)

Meals on tour have been really satisfying. Breakfasts are usually cereal, bread & spread, tea & coffee, sometimes fruit and sometimes hot breakfast (French toast/sausages) when we don't have to leave early. Lunch is generally always made quickly on the run. Roadside sandwiches with cold meat and salad plus leftovers from last night. Dinners are always meat & veg...grilled chicken, stew, casserole, stirfry, pasta or rice. It's a shared system where we all pitch in. Some are better at cooking then others, so the rest of us are happy to clean up. The meat & non-perishables are bought at supermarkets at bigger towns and most fruit&veg is bought from vendors on the street. Tomato, carrot, green capsicum and red onions are the staple four ingredients. It's amazing how many different meals you can make with limited ingredients! Kelvin, our tour leader, is a whiz with the African BBQ called a 'braai' (pronounced 'bry').