So on Sunday the 20th Novemeber we left Kahunda on the bus, which broke down briefly on the way to Sengerema (a local town less than 2 hours by car from Kahunda), then a dala dala up to the ferry crossing (To get to Mwanza from Kahunda you have to get a ferry across an estuary to Lake Victoria). A dala dala is a small mini bus which can apparently fit twice the capacity of a minibus or even more! I sat in the front with 3 other men, two of them were sharing the drivers seat, so one of them had the gear stick positioned in between his legs. We were hailed at one point, normally for a lift but this time it was a pikipiki (mortorbike) driver asking our driver to change his money. As our driver got out, the guy sharing the drivers seat held the brakes for him, so it was practical, at least to share the drivers seat.
We went on a safari in the Serengeti, we left from Mwanza at about 0815 and had a 2 hour drive to the Ndabaka gate of the Serengeti National Park, where we quickly stretched and then entered! So on this day 1st of 2; we saw zebra, wildebeest, warthogs wandering, a pair of lions mating, 3 cheetahs one of which chased a Thompsons gazelle (unsuccessfully), a leopard tucking into its dinner, another leopard lying down on a rock, elephants eating, hippos & crocodiles, baboons, giraffe grazing, buffaloes, monkeys and a fair amount tourists taking pictures, although some of them couldn't have just been tourists with the size of some of the cameras we saw, they must have been from the National Geographic or something!
The next day we got really close to a cheetah it was only about 1 meter from the car, we saw thousands of wildebeest migrating, herds of zebra, crocodiles, giraffes running. A black and white monkey (colobus), more hippos, a leopard taking a toilet break from chilling in a tree, a bunch of vultures pecking at a carcass, a couple of eagles. Many other birds. When we finished on the second day at the gate at about 1700 we switched cars at the gate into the Andersens, and stayed a night in Musoma on Lake Victoria. Then the following day we drove up to RVA getting two flats along the way, picked up the Andersen's kids and arrived in Nairobi at 1930. Got to watched some of Man U v Rangers, that was fun.
Flying Ants: fried flying ants make a great appetiser. I have a picture of me eating one but can't put it up yet, sorry! (taste like popcorn, don't look good though)
