From Zambia we had decided to get the train to Tanzania, which would take us from just north of Lusaka, Zambia's capital, to Dar es Salaam. We have grown very fond of train travel on this trip, and we weren't put off doing this particular train journey even when we were told that it normally took anywhere between two to five days…the casual acceptance of a possible 3-day delay acting as a very good summary of travelling in Africa.

To our surprise the train left Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia on time, and the gods must have been looking down on us because when we crossed through to Tanzania, the on-board immigration officials informed us that we had arrived earlier than expected, the first time in 10 years! True to form however, the inevitable delay occurred when the train's locomotive broke down on the second day, and we sat waiting for hours on the rail track for a replacement one, to arrive from Dar, about four hours away. As a result we arrived only 12 hours late, and it made us laugh that mostly anywhere else this would be totally unacceptable, whereas here it was a cause for celebration. It was a great journey though, with lots of colourful viewing with hoards of people coming to the windows and doors to sell things whenever we stopped - at one point we swapped a spare bar of soap we had for an avocado, as we didn't have enough Tanzanian money, an exciting trade for everyone involved. We were in a four-berth cabin, which we had all to ourselves, as you are not allowed mixed-sex sleeper compartments…so the only way round this was to book the whole cabin, essentially travelling first-class, as we didn't really fancy potentially being opposite ends of the train for maybe five days…so while it wasn't the most sociable, it was certainly very comfortable! We passed oxcarts ploughing farmland, village kids running excitedly alongside the train as - it wasn't a fast train! - and watched the changing scenery from one country to the next, and within Tanzania, as we moved through its hilly Southern Highlands to more tropical scenery on the second day.

We spent a couple of days in Dar es Salaam, a city which we were pleasantly surprised by, considering the dodgy stories we had heard about it. As far as African cities go it felt like one of the more interesting and friendly ones, with a picturesque seaside setting and a mix of African, Arabic and Indian influences resulting in excellent food and a vibrant atmosphere….it had been a long time since we had heard the melodic call to prayer from a mosque, or enjoyed a really good curry!

From Dar we headed to Moshi, a low-key town in northern Tanzania, near the Kenyan border, and the main jumping-off point for people tackling Mount Kilimanjaro. I won't deny that whenever one of the local guys approached us to try and sell us a trip to Kili, I was very smug in my response of "no thanks, done that!". I'd loved the experience, when I climbed it with five friends in 2010, but certainly felt no urge to tackle it again. Instead we admired the view of the snowcapped peak from the rooftop bar at our guesthouse, and settled in to lots of football-watching as the World Cup had just started. The first England game against Italy was on at 1am Tanzania time, and despite a rather long day of travelling, starting at 5am, we summoned all our strength in the name of patriotic duty to watch the game, even though we probably could have predicted the outcome!

Our next destination was Mwanza, a colourful city (Tanzania's second-largest) on the banks of Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, which borders Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. The bus-numbing journey from Moshi to Mwanza - the driver having no regard for speed bumps, resulting in regularly being thrown up and down on our seats, for 12.5 hours - passed just south of the famous Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park. Originally, visiting these was not part of our plan, however it felt slightly criminal just bypassing them when we were so close. As one of my best pals Zoe always says, 'couldn't afford to, couldn't afford not to…' and that was the attitude we took! The Serengeti was closest to Mwanza, and when we discovered that we could visit it by means of a camping safari - much better for our budget - that was it and soon we were off on a two-day trip into the famous national park, just to see what all the excitement was about. And wow, did it live up to its reputation…. within the beautiful surroundings of the rolling plains of the Serengeti savannah, it seemed that just about every bend in the dust road produced another stunning wildlife sighting, from leopards, cheetahs and lions (with young cubs!) to elephants, giraffe, buffalo, hyenas…and then the icing on the cake: hundreds of thousands of zebra and wildebeest. That was the other motivation for visiting, as we were there at the right time to catch sight of some of the great wildebeest migration as they headed north on their annual circular route. On the morning of our second day the sight of these herds was particularly impressive, as it seemed the entire stretch of landscape in front of us was just zebra after wildebeest after zebra, dotting the landscape as far as the eye could see, and clogging up the 'road'. We must have seen hundreds of thousands of these animals, some in quite dense herds, forming part of the larger herd (maybe 1.5 - 2 million zebra and wildebeest) having a graze while on their way to the Maasai Marareserve in Kenya. It was a truly phenomenal couple of days….the Serengeti is just stunning, the animals seemed to lie around in wait for us, and we went to sleep in our tent at night to the sound of grunting wildebeest. We were so pleased we had done it, such a special experience, and definitely worth every single penny.

From Mwanza we took an overnight boat trip on the MV Victoria, across Lake Victoria, to the town of Bukoba, near the Ugandan border. The MV Victoria is quite a historic ship, dating back to 1959, when it was Kenya's Royal Mail postal ship, during British rule. It didn't seem to have had much in the way of modern alternations, but it didn't matter to us as we were only on it for 11 hours, to essentially sleep and cross to the other side of the lake. Bukoba was a nice enough place to hang around for a few days…clean and friendly, set in hilly, tropical surroundings with plenty of palm trees and banana trees. There was also a rustic 'beach' on the lakeshore, where we sat one afternoon, accompanied by a local couple who were making good headway through a bottle of whiskey and red wine each.

So that was our experience of Tanzania - only two weeks, but a good taste of the country and its people. We had planned to move through it quite quickly, by means of spending more time in Uganda, and also because we had presumed that Tanzania was mostly about safari and therefore out of our budget (we don't pay for safari holidays these days, we just work in safari hospitality so we can get it for free!). However we were quickly charmed by Tanzania, and its people, as well as its affordability and ease of getting around compared to backpacking in Zambia and Zimbabwe - it was great not having to spend $25-30 each night for a very crappy room! Although you get more 'hassle' in Tanzania from touts trying to sell you stuff, they generally stop the sales pitch after a friendly 'no thanks', and we found the Tanzanians really friendly and very charming. It was a noticeable change crossing the border from Zambia into a country where English was no longer the main language, and we quickly realised we had to learn a few words of Swahili on the train. And it was a good thing too, for Tanzanians are very proud of their language, and were very happy when you tried to speak a bit of Swahili…if you didn't, you soon found your conversation halted with an impromptu lesson! So of course we did try to learn a bit, which invariably was greeted with hoots of laughter or fits of giggles from whoever we were speaking to, not helped that there seemed to be all sorts of greeting-and-response variations depending on the age of the person you were talking to…but hey ho all fun and games! Tanzania was also less touristy than we imagined, and with its lovely people and great food - we were loving all the Indian-influenced dishes - all-in-all it was a pleasant surprise, and the Serengeti a wonderful bonus… particularly as knew this would probably be our last safari fix for a while, as our return date to the UK creeps nearer and nearer. Not sure Longleat Safari Park will hold quite the same appeal…?!