Hi all, Been busy over the past couple of weeks seeing a lot of wildlife. I have visited the Masai Mara. Here it rained heavily, rivers were coming through our camp! We also had a rather angry elephant not far from the tents. The Masai Mara was beautiful, particularly as the rains had come. There were, however, a lot of dead and dying cattle as the drought had been very long. Also there was a 'duty free' shop in the Mara - rather an odd place for one i thought! The heavy rains meant that on the odd occasion we had to get out and push the vehicles out of the mud (once with 3 lions nearby - though it was one of the drivers that got out on this occasion). I then travelled down to the Serengeti (I think one of the most beautiful places I have been to) where i witnessed endless plains of wilderbeast following their migration and shortly after they had given birth to their young. The wildlife here was spectacular and again very green as the rains had come. I went game driving into the Serengeti and we then bush camped with animals all around, so ealry to bed and no leaving the tent during the night lest I was eaten! The next morning i saw lots of elephants and a rather lost baby wilderbeast who was trying to infiltrate the elephants. The baby was inexperinced and i'm sure did not realise how dangerous they can be. The matriarch of the elephants soon scared it off. After visiting the Serengeti I spent a night camping on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater (rather chilly because of the altitude) - thermal long johns were put to good use. The early morning game drive into the crater was amazing as the rising sun gave me some beautiful photos. The beauty of this place probabaly topped the serengeti for me. Whilst in the Crater our vehicle stopped at a picnic/ toilet site and i was merrily making my way to the toilet - not realising the some friends in another 4x4 were waving frantically at me. A few mintues later i found out the reason. A rather large male lion had been walking about ten metres from me!!! We quickly got in the truck and went to see him drinking from a puddle of water in the road. I am now sitting in a school on Zanzibar using a computer room funded by the BBC!! where Cd burning has taken me the best part of 3 hours (i still have 1 1/2 CDs left to burn). However, it is very beautiful here, with the narrow streets of stone town, wonderful paintings and wooden carvings on sale, and some of the best fish i have ever tasted. The people in Tanzania are very kind and i have rally enjoyed my time here. Today i went on a spice tour around the island and the sister of our tour guide did some lovely henna tatoos on my hand and leg. I shall try to upload photos when I return to Dar es Salaam, though i am only there for a short time so it may have to wait until i have made my way through Malawi (as i understand that not much in the way of mod cons or food are to be found there). Francesca xx