At the moment we are in Tanzania on an expedition with Raleigh International. Before we started here, we went on a superb safari to the National Parks of the Serengeti and Ngonrongoro Crater. We went with Duma Safaris, making up a group of six, which was great as we met some lovely people. Kawaga, our guide, had 18 years of experience and knew exactly where different animals were and was really good at predicting what they would do next and which way they would go. This meant we had some really close encounters with the animals, who at times were just feet away from our jeep. Wow!! Elephants, rhinos, giraffes, zebra, lions, cheetahs, leopards, buffalo, hippos, hyenas, jackals, gazelles, wildebeest, warthogs, antelopes, and a mongoose! The jeep had a lift up top, so we could stand up and look out. The animals didn't seem to mind us at all, they just carried on doing whatever they were doing which was great as it meant we could just watch them in a natural setting. So, the hippos carried on making their barrel rolls and flicking water over their backs with their short whippy tails and farting a lot. The lions mainly slept and the giraffes grazed. The baby elephants played with each other or walked along under the adults. The cheetahs gazed out from their vantage points or stalked through the grass. And best of all, we saw a pride of lions finish eating a zebra they had caught, walk with their cubs to a river for a drink of water right past our jeep, and then hyenas run in and grab the scraps - a head, a leg, before running off laughing.
At night, we stayed in the most amazing places. The first night was at a lodge and wow, that was posh! it was right on the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater, a huge caldera formed when an ancient volcano exploded and which is now full of animals. We watched the sun set and some Maasai Warriors did their famous jumping dance before we had dinner. The other nights we spent in a tent - not like any tent I've ever been in before though. This was not your cheap £25 tent from Asda. It was a semi-permanent tent right in the Serengeti, with proper beds and pillows, rocking chairs on a porch, and a bucket shower. After a superb dinner, and beers sat round a camp fire, a herd of wildebeest galloped past, really close to the tent. Hyenas were making their funny noises all night, one seemed so close it was just at the other side of the tent wall. And in the morning, we woke to look out of the tent door to see elephants and giraffes, just browsing past. It was so amazing, we just couldn't stop smiling. :)
it was a brilliant end to our travels as such, before we started our charity work.
