Greetings from Tanzania! We crossed the border this morning and already have noticed a difference - villages are tidier and prettier than in Kenya and everywhere seems more developed and westernised. We are staying in a place called Snake Park which has its own snake zoo which we visited ... hopefully our tents will be far enough away from the snakes to allow us to sleep without fear!!! I held an African grass snake at Snake Park - Mark chickened out! The fun...

From Lake Navaisha we made our way to the Masai Mara - a large game reserve in Southern Kenya. The first night was spent in Ilongwe campsite just outside the town of Narok. The interesting thing about Narok is that it was one of the worst scenes of violence in the recent election troubles with people being killed in the streets by spears. Driving through it now you wouldn't have a clue - happy scenes of people buying veg in the markets and shouting 'Jambo!' to u...

From Nairobi we drove to Lake Navaisha - the first stop on our African expedition. Passing a UNICEF refugee camp en route was a stark reminder of the troubles that Kenya has recently experienced. The camp is just one of many in this area housing up to a million displaced people - very sad. Our campsite was amidst many greenhouses growing flowers most of which are shipped to the UK and Europe. So guys - next time you buy your lady some roses - they probably came ...

Well we made it! After a good journey to the airport and a nice cold beer in the bar it nearly all went badly wrong when we suddenly noticed the screen said 'flight closing' AAARGGGH! You have never known us run so fast down the longest airport corridor ever!! Anyway had a fantastic flight, chatting to a couple doing almost the same round the world trip as us except that they are doing Africa with a different company - their truck better not be better than our...

Well its one week til we fly and we're getting excited! We've had a trial packing of the rucksacks and found that Marks technique of shoving everything in willynilly (still in its packaging) is not going to work...(surprise surprise) Kim is now wondering whether rucksack packing lessons could be a source of income when we return broke and jobless in 9 months time!!!