Day Seven-Markets, motoring and multiple murders.

---

Tembo beach campsite , Lake Victoria to the Serengeti

Up at dawn (we were getting really good at this!). Also feeling pretty refreshed after our luxury upgrade. Beach apartment, our own shower, proper bed...

A long drive ahead though and the prospect of no showers for two nights. It would be six hours to our next campsite once we were inside Serengeti, and we were still at Lake Victoria.

We stopped at a market in Musoma before setting off. Denford had to buy some fruit and veg and pretty much everyone volunteered to help; we wanted to see round the market. It was fantastic, so colourful, and felt miles off the tourist track.

We had breakfast/lunch at the gates of Serengeti. Steve was feeding the confident African birds, which are really brightly coloured and everywhere. As I was walking back from the toilets two impala burst out of the bushes and legged it across the path, scaring me out of my wits. It felt like we were outside Serengeti!

Still, after about half an hour it gets pretty dull driving across the plains. There is nothing to see except the occasional ostrich or impala right in the distance. If we happened to drive by one close enough to make it worth it we would stop for photos but we were all nodding off or reading before long. Then we hit the tetse belt.

Tetse flies give a nasty nip, carry sleeping sickness and are attracted to dark blue clothing. It didn't take them long to cotton on to us and suddenly they seemed to be everywhere. People were thwacking their legs, the tables, each other; books being bashed against the windows, screeches of hysteria. Poor Vicki driving, who had forotten to mention this problem - and who was wearing dark blue! - was getting eaten alive. There were flies outside the truck keeping pace with it, bumping against the windows trying to get in.

All very funny. Eventually it subsided till the next tetse belt. It certainly woke us up.
The next bit of excitement was the hippo incident.

Vicki turned off road suddenly and pulled up, announcing we could get off the truck, stretch our legs, and wander on to the bridge just outside that crossed a narrow bit of river. She also warned us not to get off the other side of the bridge. So we all piled out and on to this bridge, which looked like something from Indiana Jones. It swung horribly and some of the wooden rungs were loose. It may have been steel reinforced but it felt flimsy as hell and below us was a drop down to the water below, where a hippo was wallowing alongside a few crocodile.
Steve, Jon and Tim immediately headed right across and got off the other side, edging down the opposite bank to get photos. All was looking fine until Jon lost his footing for a moment, skidding a bit and sending a flurry of pebbles down the bank. The hippo, who had previously been regarding us all dispassionately, immediately reared up and nearly got out of the water. I have never seen people run as fast! Back on the bridge for a minute, then when it calmed down back off again for more pics... Anyway, the hippo didn't like Jon. Every time he moved it would threaten to rear up again. I couldn't watch after a while. Finally we got back in the truck and left the poor hippo in peace.

As we drew nearer to our campsite it started to get much more interesting. We saw some elephants just as the light was going. We drove past Serenera Lodge, where the rich people stay in Serengeti, and carried on to our campsite. They ordered us to put our tents up really close together this time. Around the clear ground where we pitched was long grass stretching out into the park. Scary. We made a fire and later noticed that Vicki, Pat and Denford were planning to sleep on top of the truck...

---