Holidays over and back in work!! Boo... Using my time wisely and updating my blog!! Ha...

The Christmas holidays seem to have flown by (holiday periods normally do!!) from Mount Kenya with the school to safari in the Serengeti then relaxing in paradise on the beaches of Zanzibar!! Fabulous!!!

It also strangley feels good to be back... Although Im am already looking forward to the next holidays!!!

After returning from Mount Kenya we had given ourselves a day to recover and get organised for the second leg of the holidays. Six day Serengeti safari!! I was rather excited, this was what Id been looking forward to the most. I couldnt wait to see all the animals!

An early start on Saturday 18th, 5 hour shuttle bus journey to Arusha in Tanzania where we would spend the evening before heading to Lake Manyara. Tanzania has become a favourtie country of mine. The atmosphere is very relaxed and friendly, the colours of the landscape at this time of year is stunning, such vibrant towns and villages. The people are very friendly and extremely helpful, this makes the whole time spent here an absolute pleasure.

Lake Manyara was our first stop, a game drive followed by traditional dance and a good nights sleep in our tent in which we put so much trust!! Lake Manyara is stunning, spectacular views across the lake of every animal you cam imagine! On entry to the park we were treated to a performance by two groups of Baboon! Its mating season and the animals were a little bit touchy!! The noise that they can make is deafening!!! The Elephant were being as destructive as ever too, there was a moment when Sean looked a bit worried about just how destructive they can be... Sadi, our guide ensured we were kept out of harms way! A quick gear change into reverse and we backed off allowing the Elephant to make his way through! It was a fantastic start to the trip, I couldnt believe how close we could get to the animmals, amazing!!

We were joined the following day by a Canadian girl, Angela, who was volunteering in a school in Arusha. It was good to have someone different to talk to, rather than just Sean! Ha! We headed for the Serengeti via a Masaai Village. It was interesting to see how the Masaai live, however I did feel that this particular village didnt dipict exactly how things would be within the Masaai tribes, they were very aware of how to influence tourists visiting and they were plenty of opportunities to buy Masaai jewelry or donate money in the boxes positioned around the camp. It was a good insight into how things would be if you lived amongest these groups, the younger children were housed in the "school" although not much was being taught. (why would it be? they dont value education and dont see the use of education within their cultrue and lifestyle) The older children were out with the herds moving them on in search of water.

After our first day in the Serengeti I wasnt sure how things could get any better, we had seen many Zebra and Wildebeest, Spotted Hyena, Golden Jackal, LION (many!) and Leopard!!!! Two Leopard, one in a tree and the other being very protective of its cub!! We were so close we could've actually lent out of the jeep and stroked it!! Amazing! They are such stunning animals, these were in such great condition, lean with a brilliant coat. We were able to head to our compsite very happy with what we had seen on our firdt day!

Our camp was interesting... An open camp-meaning the animals could roam free!!! One night we had Buffalo chewing on the grass right next to our tent, the Hyena could be heard "laughing" close by and teh stories of Lion occasionally venturing into camp all aided the sleepless nights!!! Buffalo were hanging around whilst we set up ou tent that first night and when we were told we'd be eating outside next to the "Lions Den" it was all rather un-nerving!! A great experience though and one I would recommend!!

The vary landscape in the Serengeti is unbelievable, we were treated to the vastness of the park which enabled us not only to see many different animals but also the diffrent landscapes teh Serengeti is blessed with. We saw all the Big Five whilst on safari (Black Rhino coming in the Ngorongoro), we had an escape from a charging Hippo (those things can move!!) This was my highlight of the tour as it was just hilarious! A moment I wished I'd caught on film!! A lion eating Zebra!!! Mating Lions.. We even saw a Dung-Beetle!!

After our 6 day safari we boarded the Dar Express bound for Dar Es Salaam, hellish is the only way to describe this journey!! It was alaways going to be a bad day when 5 mins out of Arusha the bus broke down!!!! Change of bus take one! Another change, major traffic jam, accident and 13 hours later we arrived in Dar! One night was all we needed here, we were ready for the beach!!!!

Zanzibar on Christmas Day, as the ferry sailed in we were treated to the views of white sandy islands with turqoise ocean! Amazing! We were entering paradise! A couple of days in Stone Town, snorkelling at Changuu Island (Prison Island), a visit to see the giant tortoise and a few relaxing beverages!!!! Stone Towns a very interesting place with lots of history (Slave Trade) but you wouldnt need anything more than a couple of days. Touts are always hounding you offering assistence to find acommodation, attempting to persuade you to join their trips, this wears you down after a while. Everyone we met were very freindly and very helpful, we were able to make a few good deals which helped save money, however sometimes your happy to get yourself lost for a while!!! This is easy to do in Stone Town as the small narrow alleys are set outin a maze!! It was a good place to start the journey roiund the Island.

From here we headed upto Nungwi... WOW! I thought Id seen some beatiful beaches before but this was paradise! A perfect opportunity to relax and indulge! The north west of Zanzibar is certainly the main place for tourists, especially at Christmas and New Year!! Another snorkelling trip this time to Mnemba Island, the coral here was beatiful and home to loads of fish!! I did however feel slightly ripped off with this trip as you only got to swim for 1hr, we did get a very nice lunch on the beach... but it felt like we spent the majority of the trip on the boat feeling sick!! HA!

The food in Zanzibar was great, the sea food is extremely fresh, caught that day and such a variety! The chips were good too!!!! Kenyans cant make chips, soggy and greasey! Tanzania and Zanzibar they almost taste as good as chip shop chips!! HA!

From Nungwi we headed to Jambiani, another fantastic beach on the South East Coast. This was the venue for our New Year celebrations. Swimming with Dolphins was the order of the day!! Unbelievable, I was so lucky as the Dolphins swam around and played with me a couple of times, this was after the big chase!! When I think of swimming with Dolphins Id imagine you to get in the water and they come and play if they feel like it, if not unlucky.. Here you chase them in the boat then jump in when you see them and swim like crazy to keep up!!!! I had a great expreience however some people didnt get close! It was a great way to start the day though!

Jambiani was a great place, plenty of beach bars to enjoy, again the food was great! It wasnt as touristy as Nungwi and you got to mix with the locals too. There was a very good community atmosphere here. New Years Eve saw great celebrations, a local boat race organised by one of the hotels brought all the villagers together in carnival atmosphere. We enjoyed Jambiani more and more so we stayed for 4 days before heading to Matemwe for the final few days. Another interesting place. It seemed that here there was quite a divide between Muzungu's and local Zanzibar folk. They certainly saw white people to be an object of money and wealth. We found them very demanding, which didnt seem to match the atmosphere and attitude of anywhere else we had been. In the other places we had stayed, we'd been on the beach playing with the local children who were very polite and well mannered. They had really enjoyed joining in with us and our games, when it was time to finish the games they thanked us and return our "toys" in Matemwe they did their best to try and steal everything!! Whilst we were staying in Matemwe we went into the village and used the local store, it became apparent that the people who lived here were poorer than anywhere else we had been, there was poverty in each place we stayed however here it seemed to be a level worse, we could then understand their attitude towards the "rich "muzungu who were visiting!

After two weeks touring the country we were ready to head back "home" to Nairobi. We were very relaxed and had had an awesome holiday, I had even managed to fit 3 naps in a day!!! It was great! Sleeping, eating and drinking was the theme, a good holiday!!!