To Arusha It was a good road once we left the Ngorongoro Crater - no potholes, a white line down the middle, a yellow line down each side and wide enough for cyclists and walkers! We were still in Africa weren't we?? We descended the western escarpment of the Rift Valley once again past the incredibly beautiful Lake Manyaya shining in the afternoon sun. But the descent was interesting - a speed limit of 30kph, and rumble bars and speed bumps all along the h...

Ngorongoro Crater We left Serengeti National Park and drove straight into the Ngorongoro Reserve as they abut each other. Along the way we saw huge "herds" of ostriches (anyone know the collective noun for ostriches?) on a wide featureless plain with the mountains we were heading for in the distance. The heat formed haze on the desert floor resembling huge lakes, even reflecting rock outcrops and hills, though the dust raised by vehicles in front of ...

The Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. We drove into the park by the western gate and stopped to get our permits. The parks in Tanzania are very strict on the time you spend there and charge accordingly - there is a daily fee for cars, each person and for camping and it amounts to about US$300-400 per day. But getting the permits was like getting a visa at the border - slow and painful. The new computer system was down and each permit had to be done indiv...

On to the Serengeti After our Beach Resort stop we made for the Tanzanian bo rder at Isebania. We made our way through horrendous traffic in the markets in Kisumu and continued down the eastern side of Lake Victoria. Obama's father came from this region of Kenya and there were posters everywhere of the new president. People we spoke to were all thrilled with his election and many seem to think that it will mean they will all gain automatic entry to the...

Across the Border Again Enough of the scary stuff at Jinja; time to move on again. We headed out towards the Ugandan/Kenyan border, this time to head south towards Tanzania. Thhis time we rossed at the border town of Busia. As usual, checking out was a shorter process than checking in, but our visas for Kenya were still current so the hassles were kept to a minimum. Back on the road, we knew we were in Kenya again: we had to drive on the wrong side ...