20.Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania - 29 October to 17 November 2009 Peponi Beach Resort south of Tanga on the Tanzanian coast was our next campsite after leaving Dar Es Salaam on Thursday 29 October. Our UK family - Dickie, Claire, Sonya and Natasha - also arrived, and Bob and Maria, whom we had met at Mikadi Beach the night we came back from Zanzibar, were already camped there. On Saturday night Bob and Maria invited us all over for a ca...

19.Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar and Chumbe Island, Tanzania - 19 October to 29 October 2009 On Monday October 19 we drove from Mikumi to Dar Es Salaam, through the middle of Mikumi National Park which has a constant barrage of speed bumps along the way to slow the traffic down for the wildlife. We have found the use of speed bumps is quite common and possibly the only way to reduce speed, which is universal on the roads despite the surface. We stopped in Morogoro for...

18.Ruaha National Park, Tanzania - 12 October to 19 October 2009 On Monday 12 October, the border crossing into Tanzania was surprisingly quick and easy, and on the drive north to Mbeya we passed through the Southern Highlands, a hilly, green, tropical landscape of rich volcanic soil with tea and banana plantations. This was our introduction to Tanzania, and the cool mountain air was a nice change after hot and humid Lake Malawi. Utengule Coffee Lodge is not fa...