The morning was spent in Arusha being mobbed by Idi Amin Dada (as he said he was) & his friends trying to sell us paintings. We hid in a patisserie but they just waited outside until it was time to get back on the truck. Needless to say we didn't buy any paintings even at special cheap cheap friends price. Had a hotdog lunch under a Baobab tree on route to Tembo & when we arrived some of us went for a scenic hill walk to watch the sunset but spent more time watching the ground trying to find the path. Had a much deserved swim & played keepie uppies with an old lemon in the pool. This progressed to an old volleyball & the world keepie uppie record @ 72 is now held by Lizzie, ... read more

If you want Safari we got safari! We got up before dawn to be picked up in Land Cruisers to go to Ngorongoro Crater. The first creature to be spotted was the Tanzanian Prime Minister, who had decided to hold a rally for the upcoming elections in the middle of the road, which held us up a bit as the armed police were not going to let us go anywhere. Just before the entrance a troop of Olive Baboons crossed the road & we were all very excited & trying to take photos of them. The entrance to the Ngorongoro Crater conservation area is just like the gates to Jurassic Park, opening up on lush green vegetation with the expectation of man eating creatures lurking within. We then had to get into the crater which involved ... read more

Got up reasonably early to go across the Kenya/Tanzania border on route through the Serengeti we saw Superb Starling, Maribou Storks, Purple Heron & Giraffe all just from the truck window. In Tanzania we were staying at the Mesarani Snake Park, Arusha where we had snakes, vultures & crocs just behind our tents (all fenced off but we did have a few escapees during our stay). Drink of the Day: Springbok (Amurula & Creme de Menthe). ... read more

We woke up to see Spakes Weavers & Olive Thrushes over the hotel gardens then after breakfast we met up with the rest of the Dragoman group, Steve & Tim our guide/chefs/drivers/mechanics, Justin, Maria, Mark, Jason, Nathan, Tracy, Liz, Kate, Naomi, Lizzy, Leroy, Robin, Tom, Butch & Barbara, the rest of the gang. We then went to the Nairobi Museum behind our hotel which had an excellent Joy Adamsen exhibition including paintings of all the Maasai tribes. After lunch we moved to our first camping stop (Nairobi Upperhill campsite) where a couple of the group went shopping for provisions while the rest of us familarised ourselves with the tents (ours is called Waterfall). Once we had worked out how to use the zips & inflated our bedding paraphernalia we made our way over Narobis pot hole ... read more

We have successfully secreted ourselves into Hotel Boulevard- which is pretty basic for the dosh but far superior to what we can probably expect in a tent! Lovely gardens though with sounds from the river beyond. Also our transfer driver was an ace tour guide- as soon as you hop in he was off on the full demographics of the country. There are 30M people in Nairobi and 70% speak swahili. 50% speak english as they are always taught in english at school and only 50% get there. Phew so many facts....... read more

Ok so here's the plan 2nd September '05 Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, back to London (18th October '05) 19th October '05 fly to Singapore, 20th October '05 travel to Malaysia, Thailand, (7th November '05) Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, (29th December '05) Hong Kong, China, (12th January '06) Japan, (25th January '06) Australia, (9th March '06) New Zealand, (4th May '06) Chile, (10th May '06) Peru, (26th July '06) Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, (10th August '06) USA, (1st September '06) Canada, (3rd September '06) USA, (26th September '06) fly back home. Let's see what happens. Feel free to come and find us at any point. Visited Countries Map ... read more