Today we opted for a 5.30 wake up call and wandered up the beach for a 5.45 tea and muffin before heading off into the bush for an early morning game drive - back for 0930, breakfast and a restful day until a 1700 canoe trip, in a traditional canoe along the brackish river at the side of the camp. Both trips revealed some great wildlife (see below); in the intervening break I went for a jog - it was a bit hot but I found that I could only jog oneway as the wind...

All packed we had breakfast at 7am, said our goodbyes and left at 7.30am for our 2 hour trip to the airstrip at Ndutu. We arrived just after 9.30, for our 1050 flight, and found the plane in - it had flown in the night before. The pilot said once the other 5 passengers arrived we would leave. They arrived just after 1000am and true to his word we set off, via another airstrip in the southern Serengeti to pick up passengers,for Arusha - today's picture is our plan...

We had a 0545 wake up call and tea tray, with a shower following at 0600 and breakfast at 0630....porridge again by special request! These timings enabled us to be away by 0700 on an all day game drive to the Ndutu area....which is about 3 hours to the north. What a day - it was packed with interesting sightings and it started as we left the camp with a giraffe, quickly followed by an augur buzzard sitting on a termite mound ( its head was muddy so guess it had...

Another thunderstorm was in full flow at getting up time - 6.00am- so I lay listening to the rain and the river which you could tell was higher as a result of the storms. The rain soon stopped and allowed a dry walk to the mess tent albeit the grass was very wet. Hot porridge set is up for the day and at 0715 we were away walking the 12 miles back to main camp. With the wet grass my feet were nearly as wet as yesterday when I fell in the river added to which was ...

At 3 am I was awoken by a thunderstorm and just before dawn rain was hammering on our tent but as if by magic it had all ended by the time we emerged from our tent at 6.15am. Breakfast was porridge (by special request) and toast - again mayonnaise appeared instead of butter but I knew better this time and it was quickly swopped for the butter in the cool box! John had a place under his eye which was looked very red and swollen - big John diagnosed it as Nairobi ...