We've been in Tanzania for a week now and have travelled through, visited and stayed in a number of places including Lake Victoria in Mwanza, the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater.
For a few nights, we stayed in unfenced campsites in the Serengeti - none of which had upgrade options, hot water or flushing toilets! Because the camps are unfenced, we had security guards to make sure no animals got peckish in the middle of the night. It was a little unnerving hearing roaring lions from our tent (particularly when we'd seen them tearing a fresh zebra carcass to pieces just hours before) so it was a case of holding it in until the morning rather than risking a midnight toilet run!
Even though the Serengeti is Tanzania's most famous national park, I wasn't all that fussed in comparison to the Crater.
The Serengeti was exactly as I'd imagined though - it was the classic east African scenery, full of endless grassy plains with distinctive flat topped acia trees dotting the savannah.
In some parts, the scenery was so perfect and stereotypically African, it almost looked animated, like a scene out of Lion King! We even saw some lions looking out from their very own Pride Rock (although good luck with spotting them in the photo below - I could only see them through binoculars!).
Everything about the Ngorongoro Crater was amazing, even the drive to get there (during which the truck journey turned into a heavy drinking session resulting in hangovers kicking in at about 7pm)
When we arrived, we couldn't see anything except the jagged, rocky peaks of the surrounding extinct volcanoes and the thick white cloud gathered inside - it reminded me of a massive cappuccino from O'Briens!
It looked like the animals had also been on a massive binge drinking session when we arrived, with rhinos and buffalos lolling around, flaked out in the early morning sun and even a male lion throwing up about 10 metres away from one of our 4x4s! To be fair, we were up at 4.30am so we didn't look too sharp either.
As the clouds evaporated and the animals woke up, the Crater revealed its previously hidden expanse that was teeming with wildlife, including lions, rhino, elephant, buffalo (we only have leopard to tick off until we have Big Five Bingo!), zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, hyenas, jackals, waterbucks, flamingos, ostriches and loads, loads more.
But rather than the breathtaking beauty of the rugged Ngorongoro Crater, seeing lions and so many other animals interact at such close range, the highlight of the day was trying to push our 4x4s out of the mud.
I'm happy to report that as I was wearing flip flops (Thank God I was running late and couldn't find my walking boots!), I could barely stand in the calf deep mud, let alone push a truck out of it so provided the troops with strategic advice, direction and general encouragement!
My camera broke a few days ago (so gutted - Anwen, remember to bring yours with you) so I haven't got any photos showing how muddy they got but they were covered, from head to toe whilst I was got away with a few splatters.
However, the whole debacle was caught on film by a CBS camera crew (they were passing in some of the vehicles that helped to tow us out!) so look out for 16 mud slathered people waving at a camera, jumping up and down shouting, "We love CBS!" on a tv screen near you!
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