Waking up this morning we had an unwelcome piece of information from Mandla. We have a LOT more ground to cover in East Africa in the same amount of time as the previous tour which means many more long days driving and very early starts!

We jumped in the truck and I was feeling a bit low as this truck (I forgot to introduce him but his name's Makheba) isn't as nice as Sonny so there is little chance of getting much sleep. Especially with the bumpier road surfaces! The seats aren't as comfortable and everything's a bit more 'rattled apart'! Today is no exception in the bumpy stakes as the roads are notoriously bad and the estimated travelling time is 10-12 hours…

Not much I can say about today really. There is a clear difference to the Africa we have come to know and love. It's green and pretty in this particular area and the people are all what you might consider "traditional African" in appearance and dress. The living conditions are much more basic, as are the local shops. Most people seem to sit around all day with very few actually doing anything you might consider work. All food seems to be home grown or raised although we saw very few people actually working the fields or looking after the animals.

It's starting to look a lot like the Africa you see on programs such as Children in Need, only the people are not quite so desperately undernourished or unhappy! In fact if anything they seem to be very happy!!!

Once again we arrived late to the campsite and it was almost dark. We put up our tents in a hurry around 4 other overland trucks who had all arrived ahead of us and were already eating their dinner and then, after quick, cold showers, had dinner of our own. We all sat around the truck after dinner whilst Mandla kept us entertained with his animal impressions, which were actually really good! I was exhausted though and couldn't wait to get to bed!

Sarah