Days 4-6:

After the gorilla trek in Rwanda we spent the next day looking around the local town and visiting the market. The day after that it was time to leave Rwanda to go into Tanzania heading for the Serengeti National Park. This consisted of 3 long drive days on the truck but they were certainly eventful!!

The first day we left Rwanda and crossed the Tanzanian border without any problems. Once across the border we had an armed security gaurd come sit in the truck with us as the road can be a bit dodgey apparently!! Then when we arrived at a bridge it was closed so it looked like we would have to camp near the bridge for the night but luckily the place where we were staying belonged to the Police Chief of the area and his wife was cooking a meal for us so he got them to open the bridge for us. It was dark by this point so we had another armed security gaurd come in the truck with us. When we eventually got there the meal was very nice and we were shown to our rooms. In our room there was one small double bed and 4 of us to sleep on it!! So we were all in our sleeping bags on top of this bed and no one could move and we were so close to each other. The toilet was also our first experiance of a long drop toilet, just a hole in the ground!! Interesting!!

The second days drive went well and we arrived in Mwanza and camped on the very edge of Lake Victoria. It was the first night in a tent and I was on cooking duty. The view was amazing and a hawk kept on swooping down over us trying to get the fish we were cooking!!

The next day we were up early for another long drive day towards the outskirts of the Serengeti National Park. Once again the day started off well and we didnt really come across any problems until about 4pm. It had started to rain and we came to a point where a river and formed across the road and it was moving quite fast and there was a queue of traffic waiting to see who was brave enough to try to cross it. Our driver thought he could do it in our big truck but we were quite a way back. Then this normal car decided to have a go and of course got stuck half way across so then we had to wait while people pulled him out!! Eventually they got out and other cars crossed as the water had started to go down a bit. Once again it was getting dark and we had to cross several rivers on the road on the way. Then when we were about 500m from the campsite the truck got stuck in mud and couldnt move!! We had to climb out of the truck and walk through the squishy squelchy mud bare foot to the campsite looking out for animals as it was on the outskirts of the Serengeti which doesnt have any fences around it!! We then set up our tents and tried to get a clean as we could. We had some gaurds with bows and arrows incase any animals came near.

The next morning we had to pack up our tents and carry them back to the truck which had been towed out of the mud. We then headed towards the gates of the Serengeti National Park and our Safari began!!