10 days on safari in tanzania, started in Arusha. We did a walking tour in Arusha national park and got very close to some mean looking buffalo, also saw some black and white colobus monkeys. We saw many elephants in tarangiri park, then on to the serengeti, where we saw many lions, cheetahs and 5 leopards (tricky to spot). Wildebeest were everywhere, on their migration north to Kenya. We then spent a few days in Ndutu next to the serengeti, where we were allowed...

We had an amazing 10 days volunteering at the Riverside Wildlife center that takes care of orphaned monkeys, baboons, and other creatures. Work started at 7am, cleaning cages and preparing food until 9am, then we volunteers would get a quick breakfast before finishing chores. In the afternoon we observed monkeys, took care of injured ones, prepared the afternoon food for them, and at night we usually had a basket of monkey babies in our room to feed and put to sl...

We stayed on the coast in a town called Hermanus for two nights after visiting the penguins. Hermanus is close to the place where you can go into a cage with great white sharks, so Kai and I decided to do it. Anna, Jay and Aki spent the day at the beach (without sharks...). On the shark dive, we went to one site and set up, and started growing tasty fish blood and guts out. No sharks came, but we could hear howls of excitement from another boat we couldn't see in...

We spent a couple days in Cape Town. Walked all the way along Long Street, picked up our malaria medicine at a clinic, had lunch on the waterfront, then went to the South Africa national museum. Very good photography exhibit with a few award winning shots by kids (11-14 yr old category and 10 and under). Walked through the Company Gardens, originally used to grow food for the ships passing through on the way to and from India. Next day we took the boat to Robben...

After a second long flight from Doha to Cape Town via Johannesburg, arrived at our hotel about 6:30pm local time. Kids were still awake but not for long. They managed to do a fair TPF reading on the flights, in addition to watching various movies and animal documentaries. Early wake up this morning by most (Kai was last), big buffet breakfast that Aki thought was outrageously expensive at 200 Rand until she recalculated and realized it was about $25! Sightseeing...