This morning we did a history tour of Stone Town, learning about the slave trade in particular. Lots of men were taken from Zanzibar as slaves to middle eastern countries. We seen the dungeons where they were kept for up to three days without food or water, just to test the strength of the man. The dungeons were not big at all, yet they would cram 70 men into one and 50 into the other. We also learnt about Dr Livingstone who is credited with helping to finally abolish the slave trade, there had been people before who had tried to achieve this but it was his negotiations with scholars at Oxford and Cambridge that ruled that the slave trade must be stopped. After our history tour, it was time to head north towards Nungwi which ... read more

Today we had to get up at 4.00am as the plan was to drive for around 14 hours which would mean we would be able to skip out a day which had just been set aside for travelling, giving us an extra day in Zanzibar. Everyone got into the truck and fell asleep pretty quickly. The drive wasn’t too bumpy but it definitely wasn’t comfortable. We stopped along the way a couple of times for bush toilet breaks, basically heading out into the bushes and squatting! Everything was going accordingly until we were stopped by the Tanzanian authorities, pretty much they seen tourists and decided to try to blackmail us. They claimed that our driver and cook should have special permits to be able to work as they drove through Tanzania, our guide stated this had ... read more

We got up for breakfast around 6.00am and headed towards the crater. The crater was formed after a volcanic eruption and now has lots of different types of animals in it. We were told this would be our best opportunity to see a rhino, however this didn’t happen. We did get to see lots of other animals though and the jeeps were great as we got to stand up through the roof for most of the safari. Seeing so many wild animals is truly incredible in their natural habitat. After the crater we headed towards the Serengeti and did a game drive on the way to our campsite, which was in the reserve itself (this was something I didn’t know until I got to Africa, I promise Mum, however when I found out I decided not ... read more

Breakfast was to be pre-ordered the night before so Chris and I were down for 7..00am to get our scrambled eggs and toast before we packed our things into the truck ready to depart towards Arusha which was our halfway point to the Serengeti. We had to stop to cross the border from Kenya to Tanzania, this didn’t take too long but involved getting out of the truck on the Kenya side, having our passport stamped to say that we had left, then walking about 100metres to the Tanzania side where we paid $50 to enter Tanzania. We all jumped back into the truck and drove for a couple of hours again before stopping for lunch on the roadside. Everyone pitches in with lunch, cutting fruit and veg, setting out the wash basins etc and before ... read more

We woke up at 5.30am ready for breakfast at 6.00am. We were really excited to be heading into the national park and departed in time to be there for 6.30am. Moses was a great guide and was really good at pointing out all the animals. We got to witness the great migration, it was amazing how many wildebeest in particular were crossing into the Masai Mara from the Serengeti. We also got to see a variety of animals with the highlight perhaps being the lioness that walked right in front of our truck. Moses had noticed it from quite a distance and it literally walked straight towards us. At the lunch break we got taken by a ranger for a walk along the river bank, there we saw hippos and crocodiles lounging in the sun, it ... read more