Hello from Zanzibar. We're in the north of Zanzibar island having got here after a long, long journey yesterday, so just chilling out today, Dar (the capital of Tanzania) is quite modern and we're back in Dar on Tuesday for a couple of hours so we'll see a bit more. This place is great and reminds me of a more developed Indonesian island. We're at sea level and enjoying a tropical climate. Last week we reached 2300 m at the Ngorogoro crator and it was cold in the evening and mornings. Last week we had a demanding time with early morning starts and quite long drives over terrible roads, particularly in Serengeti, very corrugated but it was worth it. We've seen an amazing number of lions, hyenas, wildebeast on migration and the dead ones in the river that failed the crossing, together with mighty crocs that line the river in anticipation ! We've seen a huge variety of wild life including leopard, more hippos and loads of lions as well as a cheetah; the latter is difficult to see even in the Masai Mara. I won't bore you with a list of birds but I expect you can imagine; I'll just say our Namibian training has put us in good stead here.
We're both fine and ready for the next 2 weeks race through Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. We have a lot of people leaving the trip after this stage and only 3 joining so we'll have more room in the truck, its called the "flying pig" and we wish it could fly sometimes! particulary up the hills.
We had a great Spice tour when we arrived here and saw all the spices being grown in a mixed woodland, Helen has photos of every spice, believe me. Also saw a Masai village etc with great photos of dancing and their compounds etc. They seem to live a traditional lifestyle in the region we travelled through particularly near the crater itself. We also have some videos on the camera of elephants demolishing trees at close quarters with full sound effects. We had elephants and wild pigs in camp at the Ngorogoro crater camp site. Again we had a 5.30 start in the rain and dark yesterday, so nice to forget the tent for three nights until Tuesday night. Our third trip starts on Wednesday from Dar. We haven't being stopping long enough to do any laundry so we gave it in here but it has returned in poor shape and wet so Helen is trying to sort that out. It is sometimes difficult to get internet access and often frustrating when we do, just like Rundu! Hope you're having an Indian summer in UK. Take care ....next posting is likely to be Durban after our flight from Livingstone. Still seeing Pajeros in Tanzania so I guess they've become an African vehicle after all.