IS THERE A FIRE IN ZIMBABWE? As we approach Victoria Falls we see lots of smoke in the distance, but as we get closer we realise it isn’t rising as smoke should and it must be the Falls! They are so big we could see them from this far away way up in the plane - I’m so excited now! As we come into land we see that the airport is literally a runway and a building in the middle of nothing - reminded me of a bigger, green lush version of the Serengeti Airstrip, minus the herds of animals. After collecting bags (much easier this time) we head out to the endless stream of people offering you cars, taxis etc. We end up with one who will charge us $30 USD, so we’re on our ... read more

Today we’re off to Lake Manyara, on checkout the same guy who checked us in was there. But he was really chatty, friendly and even smiled! So perhaps he was just having a bad day when he checked us in… We’ve decided it’s time to introduce Roman to the world of the iPod, I have some country music on it that he will like and anything would be a change from Don Williams, and it’s probably my only chance of listening to Dolly Parton and Alan Jackson in the same car as Tim! OF ALL THE THINGS WE COULD GIVE TO AFRICA…. Yay, the radio tuner works on the stereo, so while Roman is arranging our permits to drive through Ngorongoro National Park (yes you need as permit just to drive on the road around the ... read more

It’s on the road again after breakfast; it goes from a tight winding dirt road with a sheer drop down the side of the mountain to long straight flat areas where the Maasai graze their herds of cattle and goats alongside the zebra and wildebeest. We listen to more Don Williams, we have learnt that Roman likes all music but most of all he likes country music (he only has with him only one Don Williams cassette and one African music cassette, so we know them both well now), he would like to buy a guitar and be a country/western singer. He’d like a pair of wrangler jeans, denim shirt (“a nice soft one, not hard thick denim”), a cowboy hat and boots. It only takes a couple of hours to get to the Serengeti National ... read more

WE NEVER STOP LEARNING We are trying to learn a little Swahili as we go and we now have a little list of words we can, or try to say. Hello - Jambo Goodbye - Kwaheri Thankyou very much - Asanti - sunna Your welcome - Kariwu Yes - Ndeo No - Habana Milk - Maziwa Tea - Chai Sleep well - Lalla sallama And for all you people who are literate in Swahili, I know its possibly (okay, most likely) spelt wrong, but this was a lesson from ‘Swahili for Dummies’. We have breakfast at 7:30am and then at 8am we’re off for our game drive on route to Lake Manyara. ELEPHANTS, CHEETAHS AND MORE… This morning we see everything from yesterday including a bigger family of Mongoose and the smallest deer in Africa, its ... read more

We are woken at 6:25am by the night butler with a juice for Tim and Hot Chocolate for me to drink while we wait for the giraffes to wake up. MORNING VISITORS We have a little bucket of giraffe food to feed them if they come by. So we open all our windows (even though it’s cold), and then it happens - my hot chocolate is sitting on the window sill as I open the window the locking arm pushes it off and onto the bed! Only about an inch came out but it seemed to go a long way! So we will now be known as the laundry couple! Then we see them coming through the trees, we ended up counting 8 of the resident 10 giraffes, slowly, slowly some make their way to the ... read more