Tues 9th. I didn’t sleep very well; worrying about being able to pay both Steve and Meru House. Earlyish start as Steve was meeting me at 08:00. I  got going early..reached the ATM by 07:00. People were having problems getting money out; one guy said his money was stuck..Wondering if that’s what happened to my 600K on Sunday. I got my money out of CBRD in the end but they charge 15,000 (nearly £5) per transaction. Back to my room. Steve was waiting across the road; we walked to Shoppers. Steve bought me a coffee before 2 of the couples arrived and we set off with me sitting in the front with our driver, Innocent. The other 2 of the group were being picked up from Arusha airport, but they were delayed from Zanzibar. A hour or so lost as we waited.
Good trip to Tarangire; the driver put his foot down to make up for lost time. Fun driving around the Park; it was my first time there. Saw a few gazelles, warthogs, ostriches, giraffe…and most exciting was lots of elephants and one particularly big herd of well over 50. They crossed and were playing in the road in front of us. We were given a big packed lunch. We saw a statuesque lion silhoueted on a hill, but if it hadn’t been pointed out you wouldn’t know…too far away. One toilet break was on an escarpment overlooking a wide valley with a river running through it. We had about 3 hours in Tarangire before we left the Park and went through Mto Wa Mbu to the high escarpment and the Panorama camping site overlooking Lake Manyara.

The view across to the Lake and the surrounding plains wasn’t great as it was hazy and cloudy. We slept in small igloo shaped structures..comfortable sleeping. The toilet block was pretty good…just no hot water in the showers. The dining area was excellent, including Wi-Fi . A very nice dinner for the 7 of us. Uri bought a few bottles of Konyagi and I chipped in with a couple of bottles of K Vant. And we had a dancing, singing and acrobatics show put on for all the guests. A brilliant evening.

Wed 10th. Left after Bfast…after 9:00. A steep climb to the Ngorongoro gate. Ngorongoro Crater itself not visible due to low cloud but we were returning there the next day anyway. Lots of giraffe. Some zebra . We had a toilet break at the OlDuvai gorge information centre. Reminded me of when the Leakeys came to Soni in the 60s and showed us the authentic Zinjanthropus skull. Nice lunch. Went through the Serengeti Gate. Torrential rain..nearly the whole road under water. The windscreen wipers packed up, so the muddy water being splashed onto the windscreen made driving interesting. We passed a Massive herd of buffalo..must’ve been about 500. Saw hippos. A huge elephant by the side of the road. Passed a car that had tried to cross a flooded road and got itself partially submerged. There really had been massive amounts of rain. Finally we saw some lions, but only just due to the long grass..ears and the top of their head. So, hoping for better the following day. 
Then we reached the Campsite….at least the rain had stopped. Very basic. Cold showers. No soap or toilet paper.  The dinner of spaghetti bolognese was very good though. And the Group is getting on very well.  2 Ukrainians, 2 Russians, 2 Belgians and one Brit. Innocent the driver is a very nice guy.
Lots of chat with Konyagi and KVant before retiring to my 2 man tent.

Thurs 11th. Bad nights sleep. No pillow…. uncomfortable.  Up at 04:00. By 05:00 I was having a cold shower. Before 06:00 I went to the dining room to see if the internet was working (which it wasn’t) and to charge my phones.  I managed to pass the time.  Saw some hot air balloons pass overhead; I’d forgotten the Serengeti was famous for balloon safaris. We had breakfast and left at 08:30…an hour later than planned. Immediately saw topi, just outside the gate. And few minutes later we saw our first lions. Nice and exciting, but they were mainly obscured by the long grass. We saw more lions later but they were too far off. We stopped for a while…along with 20 other vehicles…because we heard that a leopard had climbed down a tree and was making its way to another tree. Anyway, after a while we gave up waiting !!
And so we started heading back slowly. Saw the same old elephant as yesterday but got some better pics/video of him. At one point it seemed as though he was going to attack/charge us. Then we stopped for lunch at the same place as the day before.
Serengeti..amazing, but didn’t see as many animals as I expected. The scenery had changed to flat plains from the undulating hills of the Ngorongoro National Park. Thousands of zebra and wildebeest..Serengeti Plains were absolutely covered by them !!
We stopped at a Masai  ‘village’ ; the Group went for the tour but I didn’t.  Comments like ‘made in China; ‘not authentic ‘; ‘Govt sponsored’ …Glad I didn’t pay the probable $20. I knew it was a rip off just for tourists. Headed to the Campsite..lovely pics/video of giraffe and zebra by the roadside. We had to wait over 4 hours for a road/small bridge to be repaired; it needed it because we only just managed to get through the day before. But frustrating as we were less than 15 minutes drive from the camp…which we reached just before 11pm. We were shown our tents, had a nice dinner of tagliatelle and beef stew and a lot of conversation over the expensive beers. Bed at about 01:00a.m. It was more organised this time and more comfortable.

Fri 12th.  Less than 4 hrs sleep but a good,solid one. Hot shower…very nice!!     2 elephants in the campsite at breakfast. We left about 6:30 but unfortunately because a bus overtook us and got stuck at the bridge that was being repaired the day before, we were delayed by about 45 minutes until the bus was moved away. Then it was 15 minutes to Ngorongoro Crater.
A very steep descent of 610 mtrs before we reached the crater floor. To summarise….there followed 6 hours of driving around the flat but very muddy terrain. On the way down there was a huge herd of buffaloes which crossed the road in front of us. The crater lake is called Magadi and it has flamingoes.  There were around 10 hippos on the lake shore. A lone hippo. Lots of wildebeest and many elephants. In addition, warthogs and hyenas and zebra. Also some ostriches and crowned cranes. Then, what we were all hoping for…a rhinoceros. There were some that were too far off, but one was 100mtrs or so away, so just about in photo range.
We couldn’t take some routes because of the muddy conditions.  In fact one vehicle got stuck in front of us; everyone stops to help each other. It didn’t rain but there was quite low cloud which spoiled the view of the crater rim. A great day in the Ngorongoro Crater; the caldera was perhaps a bit smaller than I expected. But there again, I went with a totally open mind and to absorb what I saw.
There was a small patch of forest which we went through to ascend the crater wall, but I was expecting some more trees on the crater floor …none, just grass and a few bushes and of course the lake takes up a lot of the area. An elephant stood in the middle of the road eating from a tree, and it was over 5 minutes before we could get passed…fun though. The route up was different to the route down and brought us closer to the Camp where we had lunch at about 12:30.
A big troop of baboons came through the camp. Then it was our turn to get stuck; we had only just set off and were still inside the Campsite..!! It took 45 minutes to get the vehicle out of the ditch. First the tow rope wasn’t strong enough and kept snapping. Eventually a chain was found,  and a combination of pulling from in front and another land rover pushing from behind, managed to get us out.

Well, that was my Tanzania Safari experience.  Quite amazing and quite tiring. The 4 days cost about £600…very cheap for all inclusive.  Of course kept cheap because of the tents element. And the whole time I sat in the front of the vehicle; I asked the others if they wanted to switch around at all,but they said they were happy with the arrangement.

No mishaps after that. We drove carefully from then on as the roads were muddy and slippery. We passed Karatu and stopped at a couple of souvenir shopping centres; the second one was huge and very modern and smart. Lots of items on offer…from trinkets to huge wood carvings. The Ukrainians stayed with Innocent and went to Panorama camping before going to Lake Manyara the next day.  Me and the Russians transferred to a taxi and were driven the 2 hours to Arusha. They transferred again to be driven to KIA in order to fly to Zanzibar, while I was dropped off at Meru House.
It was already after 6pm so I didn’t bother contacting Edgar, but went to the Cold Pub to mull over my Safari Adventure.