Yes, we have now seen some cats! Lions, a cheetah and a serval so far, but the leopard is proving elusive. We saw most of our lions and the serval in the Ngorongoro Crater (Tanzania), the cheetah between there and the Serengeti and more lions in the Serengeti NP. The Ngorongoro Crater was amazing. It was a horrible day when we got up, raining, low clouds and we weren't expecting to be able to see much as driving up to the rim of the crater we couldnt see much further than the front of the landrover. As we went over the crater rim and started going down inside, the clouds lifted and we had the most beautiful views. The crater is about 20km across with one large lake and loads of smaller lakes / waterholes. We ... read more

...had a 200kg Silverback Gorilla throw a tree at you? No?! Well, we have. You want more details?!?! Well, OK then... We spent an awesome hour watching a family of gorillas in Ugandas Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. There was the mighty silverback, blackbacks, females, juveniles and a three month old baby. They were wandering round the undergrowth feeding, and we were hacking our way through the undergrowth trying to watch them. There were three people in our group (a maximum of six are allowed to watch any one group per day), along with a guide, three trackers and three armed guards. The hike into the forest was not easy, but well worth it. We would have paid again the next day to see the gorillas a second time if we had the cash on us! Hopefully ... read more

When we finally got to the border after a couple of very long days driving, no one there had heard anything about fighting, and our trucks had already crossed. Argh!! We crossed into Sudan on our own, very easy, the Sudanese formalities took 4 hours, 3 1/2 of those we were waiting for people, the rest was actually doing something. As soon as we got over the border and found our truck had taken off, we went into El Geneina to find an airline office. In an effort to either fly to Khartoum or catch up with our truck, we ended up on a local truck to a place called Nyala. It took the best part of three uncomfortable days, sleeping rough in the desert for two nights. Remember we hadn't brought sleeping bags or mats ... read more

We pretty much drove straight from the border to Limbe, stopping once for a swim/wash in a roadside creek. The first night we camped at Mile 6 Beach, our two trucks plus two from Economic Expeditions (four toilets and four showers between us all!). Despite all the people, it was a beautiful beach, and when we got up in the morning the trees were full of Mona monkeys who quite happily posed for us. In Limbe a few of us went to the Limbe Wildlife Centre, run by the same organisation that ran the places we went to in Nigeria - Pandrillus. This place in Limbe was more like a zoo than the others. All the animals looked happy and healthy enough - and this life is way better than where they came from - the ... read more

Benin was much the same as Togo, only a 48 hour transit visa but we did do a little bit more. We went to Ganvie, a stilt village on a lake just outside Cotonou. We took a pirogue trip out for a look around. That was ok, except that the first few places in the village we stopped at were tacky souvenir shops! The village was interesting, all the houses, churches, shops, schools etc on stilts about 2m above the lake. The market was great, all these women in their canoes floating in the "market place" selling their wares the same as in the markets in dry land. We saw fuel stations, fresh water pumping stations (take along your empty container and get it filled), all sorts. They survive on fishing, but the fish they are ... read more