We had an early start and Charlie boiled some eggs for breakfast whilst the rest of us got packed up ready for our second day in Lake Manyara. As we stood around our fully packed Princess, looking at our watches, I failed to smell Eric's tardy arrival and he cannot have failed to overhear how frustrated we were to be waiting for him. This frustration also extended to his lovingly boiled egg which had inadvertently now been packed under a significant volume of luggage.

With the windows wide open in an attempt to reduce the odour and disperse the atmosphere we entered the park. Eric seemed insistent on driving slowly past the wildlife we spotted and taking photos was a real challenge. Eventually we stopped at an unimpressive hot spring, where he left PR3 idling on our diesel for about 20 minutes rather than risk the starter motor doing its job twice in a row. This was followed by a wander out on a stilted walkway into the lake where hippos and flamingos were just visible in the wonderful silence created by Hattie removing the keys from the ignition as Eric headed off on the forty minute round trip...

Very much ready to be self driving we managed to sneak glimpses of noble giraffes, impressive elephants and cantankerous water buffalo as Eric ploughed around the park, though we did manage to add a couple of amarous warthogs to our copulation montage.

We left the park and headed back into Karatu finally arriving at the open bank to arrange card payment for our extortionate visit to the long anticipated Ngorogoro crater.

The bank would only take cash. I have seen Charlie lose it very very few times, but never in a bank, and the incomprehensible inability of a bank to be able to take payment off a card resulted in Charlie hopping from foot to foot, throwing his hands up and down and in a fit of peak questioning the bank manager loudly in front of the busy teller's queues 'it's almost like you don't want us to come and spend money in your bloody park?!'

Anger developed into manical histeria as we told the girls that the numerous changes of plan had all been to no avail as we still had to pull shillings out of the ATM and exchange them for dollars before being allowed to pay through the nose to enter the crater. Eric just hung his head as an exasperated Charlie made a desperate phonecall to George.

By some small miracle George arranged for payment to be taken off Charlie's card in Arusha and promised to sent the nessecary paperwork to us with someone on a bus who would meet us the next morning. Slightly dubious and shocked by the possibility that someone in Tanzania may have some logistical capabilities we asked Eric to take us shopping for provisions. Needless to say it was a waste of time and we decided to put him out of his (and our) misery by saying farewell on the roadside. As a parting coup de grace he announced that we owed him $20 for his first nights accommodation. Slightly numb from the day's events and using the small tip which he was going to receive we just threw the money at him and watched him walk away. We were finally on our own!

We pulled into our campsite at octagon lodge, put up our tents and enjoyed a long cold beer, drawing a line under the day's events. As a pick me up we agreed to eat in the restaurant which turbed out to be the best decision we had made since getting off the plane 5 days previously.

Say around a roaring fire, drinking beer and watching Bob going dreamy eyes over a hot chocolate was the perfect antidote to the day, and the meal which followed was superb. Perfectly ripe avocados, fragrant soup and a main course which filled out plates sent us to bed content that tomorrow was a new day. Even the mouldy tent had a new mosquito net liner which dramatically improved the sleeping experience.