WEEK THREE 

Another busy, fun filled week. We crossed the north-south equator again on our way towards Jinja in Uganda. This time we got a demonstration of the apparent differences between the two - the first test was the water test. They had set up three sinks; one in the southern hemisphere, one right on the border line and one in the northern hemisphere. When water was pored down the sinks, it spun in opposite directions, while the water in the sink on the border just fell straight through. We were all very impressed, that was until we moved the sinks between the northern and southern hemisphere and the water didn't change direction! They had obviously manipulated the sinks somehow. 
We didn't arrive into our campsite at Jinja, until early evening, so we quickly set up our tents and ran for the showers because we had been told they were hot - the last campsite we were in was freezing cold, with no lights.. And the toilets were holes in the ground. So we were all keen to enjoy the showers here. And that we did! As the girls came out one by one, it was funny to see the huge grins on us all. We spent the evening by the camp bar that overlooked the peaceful Nile river.
The following day was a free day, which was warmly welcomed - mainly for the sleep in! I spent the whole morning until lunch, sitting at the bar drinking coffee, using wifi and reading. After lunch, myself Carolyn and Tori hired paddle boards from the camps reception. After our experience with the canoe, we were expecting this to be a real laugh.. But we really surprised ourselves! Within 2 minutes we were all standing up and paddling around. We had them for an hour or so, and paddled up and around the Nile. It was great fun. 
That evening, a group of 10 of us organized a sunset booze cruise over the Nile, which was very relaxing with some great views. It ended up being a relatively late night, as it was one of the girls birthdays at midnight. The next morning, the truck was a very quiet place!

We then started heading back from where we originally started, which meant we had to cross the uganda-Kenya border again. This was a very slow process today.. Well over an hour. The last time we came through, i met and was talking to a young boy who sold me a water and banana. We exchanged names and had a bit of a laugh. Funnily enough, he was back there today! He was so excited to see me, and even remembered my name! This time around, because the process was extra slow, we were chatting for about half an hour. He was telling me all about his schooling and home life - he was extremely intelligent and his English was perfect. He told me that he wants to be an engineer when he grows up.. There is no doubt he has the brains, but it is a real question of whether he'll get the opportunity. This is probably one of the hardest things to witness here - so many kids with the brains, but family and country circumstances are likely to over rule this. We arrived into eldoret early evening. This was our last night with some of the people on our tour, our driver, cook and tour guide. So we were treated to an amazing buffet of local food in the camp site's restaurant. 
The following morning was a tiny bit of a sleep in, 630 for the trek back to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. We were all EXTREMELY excited, because this was going to be our first hotel room for 2 weeks! We arrived at a good time too, about 230pm to give us plenty of time to pamper ourselves - except, of course, I had to spend half of this time at the Australian embassy getting documents certified for my job with the air force. That night, a large group of us went to the world-wide known restaurant, Carnivore - you can probably guess what was involved. It was all you can eat AMAZING meat; lamb, beef, chicken, pork robs, sausages, crocodile, ostrich and Ox balls (not so great). We also got encouraged to try to local cocktail 'vodka dawa'. This was definitely good choice.. Vodka, honey, sugar syrup and fresh lime. When one of the guys asked the waiter what other drinks he might suggest all he said was 'dawa'! So this was a fair indication that we should stick to these! 
15 November, we started the next leg of our tour. This leg goes from Nairobi, Kenya, through to Zanzibar, Tanzania. All the time is spent in Tanzania. So we lost 9 people in Nairobi and have gained 10. We also have a new truck, driver and guide - an engaged couple. We did a quick meet and greet this morning at our hotel, before making tracks to Arusha, a large town in Tanzania. the Kenya-Tanzania border was much more smooth, partially because I had previously organized mine back in Australia. Once in Tanzania, it was a short distance before driving past the very impressive mount Kilimanjaro. We could definitely tell the difference between the two countries by the landscapes, the wild animals, the many Maasai locals in amongst the wildlife and more noticeably the smooooth graveled roads! 
Most of the day was spent on the road, but nicely enough we arrived into Arusha town at about 230. We did some snack and water shopping before heading to the culture heritage centre. It was here that I bought an expensive tanzinite stone ring. The stone is 1000 times rarer than diamond and is estimated to become extinct in the next 5-10 years. 

The following 3 days were spent at ngorongoro conservation area where the famous Serengeti area is. 
The first morning we split into 4 groups and into 4wds. We headed towards the conservation area. One of our first spottings of animals was the zebra mating! The scenery in the park is phenomenal. Miles of plains with random trees and shrubs and then herds of animals. We stopped at a random picnic area for lunch and boy did it turn out to be an eventful lunch! We were warned by our guide to sit underneath trees because it was not uncommon to get attacked by the birds 'kytes'. So we did exactly that, while some idiots decided against it, and even went as far as throwing food at the birds! So they started get swooped and had a couple of close calls. But then out of nowhere, the Dave who was sitting next to me under the tree got attacked from one coming from behind! The Kyte literally took a leg of chicken out if his hand. We all went screaming and screeching back to the car and finished our lunch there.
We arrived into the Serengeti area mid afternoon, where we saw plenty of wildlife. Thus far, of the big 5 we had seen the buffalo, black rhino and elephant. So we were starting to get desperate to see the remaining two; the leopard and lion. It got to about 5 and we still hadn't seen these cats, and were starting to feel a little disheartened because Serengeti the place to  see the big 5. Then in the distance we could see several 4wds parked and everyone peering out of the roof.. As we arrived, we got our first sighting of lions! We were all in absolute awe and just literally stood there for about 20 mins watching their every move. There were only females with the cubs (about 15 cubs altogether). Our guide told us that where ever there is a tribe of lions like what we were watching, the male lion has to be somewhere close but is quite often hard to sight. Regardless, we were still so impressed with what we had found. We left very happy and headed back for the campsite. 
The following morning we had a 515 wake up call for a 6am departure for a sunrise game drive, and the views were just breathtaking. This morning we came across giraffe and an elephant within about 3 metres of our truck. But by far the highlight of the ,pruning was the second sighting of a tribe of lions. And this time we found the male lion a few metres down from the tribe. And just to top it off, he was mating with a female! Needless to say, we felt extremely lucky to have had such an exciting morning, particularly because sighting the male leader of a tribe is very special. That afternoon we went for another game drive on our way to the ngorongo crater. We had a few exciting sightings including hyenas, baboons, a cheetah and it's cub, vultures, and ostrich. We had dinner at our campsite and were pleasantly greeted by a HUGE elephant drinking water out of our water tanks. We were within 2 metres of this animal, it was amazing. 
The following morning we were told that during the night we had buffalo and lions wandering through our campsite.. Im glad I didn't witness that! 
We spent our last morning on the Crater floor; its dimensions are something like 20 km long, 20 km wide and 600 metres deep. It was formed originally by a volcano. The views, once again, we just phenomenal. Everywhere you went along the crater floor, there was some kind of animal roaming. We saw buffalo. Wilderbeast, hippo, hyena, flamingo, zebra, ostrich, elephant, but the highlight was watching a tribe of female lions and their cubs munching at a buffalo they had caught and killed during the night.