Woo! I survived the 6hr bus journey from Segera, passing the spectacular Mt Kilimanjaro in Moshi along the way. I had to seriously crick my neck in order to see its twin snow capped peaks poking above the clouds but it was a stunning sight!

Upon arrival in Arusha I had a scary encounter at the bus station as I became surrounded by Taxi drivers and Tour Touts all offering my a "free" lift to these unknown hotels. They were grabbing my bags and shouting at me to follow them to their taxi's eeeeek but I put on my most evil face I could muster and most of them got the message and backed off a wee bit!! haha anyways I did eventually get a taxi who quoted me $5 for the ride to Masai Camp however along the journey he made up some crap about how the Tanzanian Shilling was now worth less in comparison to the dollar and so increased the fare to 10TZS!!! WHAT...i wasn't having any of it and so paid him what he quoted me in the first place much to his annoyance LOL I'll just have to make sure I avoid him from now on!!

I'm now staying at Masai Camp for a few days before heading to the snake park to join up with my touring buddies. The other day I met two English guys at the bar who were on their travels from London to Cape Town by car WOW pretty impressive...giving me ideas for the future LOL they've even installed a water filtering system in the back of the truck cool! By chance I've also met Rich who actually used to work for the same company that I'm going on the tour with and he's been to pretty much every country you can think of teaching and playing sports. So he's been my kind of tour guide to Arusha haha pretty handy really!

They have these mini buses here called Dalla Dalla's which ferry passengers around the town except they are no ordinary mini buses. I actually wonder how on earth they move as they are always jam packed with people, have cracked windscreens and seriously dodgy engines. The other day I was actually hanging out of the side door, feet perched on a titchy ledge and bag swinging off my shoulder whilst holding onto a rail inside for dear life LOL certainly an experience but i survived to tell the tail!

Can't wait to start the tour to S.A. now...only a day or so to go!

Em xxxx