The Serengeti is a massive game reserive with vast treeless plains. We drove in through the northern gate and down what is known as the western corrider. As the main track straight through the National Parl is part of the main highway cutting east to west through Tanzania there is also some local traffic on this road. After a couple of hours driving and seeing only the occasional vehicle we came across a broken down car containing 4 local guys. It turned out they had a puncture and had been driving on a flat typre for the past 15k as they were afraid of being attacked by animals if they stopped!! Eventually the tyre had shredded clean off the wheel and they were attempting to put on the spare. they had no jack only rocks and as they tried to pump up the spare with a hand pump this too had a puncture. They flagged us down and Peter got out his trolley jack, jacked the car up and got out his electrical compressor to inflate the spare which had a hole in the wall. He tried tyre weld which didn't work and then another tyre repair kit which did. They were really grateful that we managed to get them back on the road again as a night out in the wild could have had distastrous consequences. Weren't they just lucky that an ex motor mechanic from the U.K. turned up when he did!!!

At first we were a bit dispondent with the Serengeti as it is so vast you can be driving miles and not seeing any wildlife other than gazelles and baboons of which there are thousands. Eventually though we got the hang of it and by asking sarafi guides and following other vehicles we saw lots of wildlife. The Serengeti is famous for wilderbeest and the are literally thousands upon thousands in huge herds together with thousands of zebra all crossing the Serengeti in lines stretching as far as the eye can see or running along in hers of hundreds. The famous migration doesn't take place until around June during the dry season when they cross the Serengeti to the Masi Mara in Kenya in search of water.

We managed to track down a pride of lions in a giant cluster of rocks and sat beside them in the truck just watching them trying to find shade from the sun. It is unbelievable when you are sat so close to them, they are such magnificant beasts. We were also lucky enought to see 2 cheethah. One we stumbled across ourselves as it stood alone on a mound of earth surveying its next meal and another that was being viewed by several other vehicles as it sat high up in a tree. There were masses of hippo in every pool together with crocodile. It does take a while tracking these animals but you get a great buzz when you find them and it's quite compulsive going out searching.

On our first day we had seen a couple of hyena but on the last day actually saw one with a kill. It is generally thought they are just scavengers but they can actually chase down and kill smaller animals. It had a small gazelle in a drainage ditch as we drove up and they head of the hyena was couvered in blood where it had been devouring its lunch. It was one of the ugliest animals I have ever seen. There were also 3 vultures sat alongside us waiting for their chance.

We stayed in a public campsite where we had a campfire each evening and heard animals in camp on the first night but othing on the second. Unfortunately though by nightfall we were literally attacked by inspects some pretty huge which were attracted by our lamps and so we had to eat inside.

The drive through the Sergengeti also involves driving through the Ngorongoro Crater, a huge volcano and with a rim of 20k wide one of the largest in the world which houses an abundance of wildlife due to the lake at the bottom. We didn't actually drive down into the crater itself though just around the rim for which which you are charged $140 dollars to drive 100k over a seriously potholled road and a further $100 to go down the crater plus the cost of a guard.