I had a good sleep, but Mummy and Daddy didn’t. That was because they heard a lion roaring. It started far away and got closer and closer. They even heard it rustle in the grass and then it roared right outside the tent! I am glad I didn’t hear it!

The next day we wanted to go driving, but we couldn’t open the boot of the car. Mummy and Daddy had to take everything out through my seat and Mummy squeezed in the back, and we still couldn’t open it. So Daddy took the car to a garage. He said it took 5 men to get it open! We were worried he had marooned us!

When he came back the door was better and we did a little drive. We went to a hippo pool and saw lots and lots of hippos. They were very smelly and made lots of farting noises.

We saw lots of animals, especially wilderbeest and zebra. In July they all come to the plains of the Serengeti and try and cross the river together. It is called a migration. They cross together to try to not be eaten by a crocodiles. We only saw 3 crocodiles, and the river was quite dry. Can you spot the croc in the river?

We also saw lots of lions! We even saw lion cubs. There were also lots of horse flies. We haven’t seen any tsetse flies though. We could tell where there was something to see because there would be lots of safari trucks stopped.

These are my other favourite photos!

We didn’t see any rhino’s, cheetahs or leopards, But we made up a song: (to the tune of ‘we’re in the money’)

Give us a rhino,

A white or black one,

Give us a Cheetah

Or a leopard in a tree.

Because of the door, we spent 2 nights in the park. Daddy wasn’t happy about the state of the roads, especially because you pay lots of money. On the way out of the park, we saw a big fire burning.

There are lots of animals inside. The only animal that is not in the crater is giraffes, because it is too steep for them to climb down. I also learnt that the lions in the crater are really big because there is lots of prey. The lions chase off any other lions that try to come in the crater.

These are the animals we saw:

• Antelope
• Cape Buffalo
• Ostrich
• Elephant
• Wilderbeest
• Hippos
• Zebra
• Hyena
• Jackal
• Baboons
• Lots of lions!!

I have chosen my favourite animal photos. There were also lots of safari trucks….

We left the crater at lunch time. Mummy and Daddy wanted to go to the Olduvai Gorge, but it was too expensive. I learnt that there are lots of early human bones and footprints found there.  Then we drove to the Serengeti Park…

They only eat their own cows and goats. They don’t hunt wild animals to eat. But he told us they drink cows milk and blood.

My favourite room had models of girls on one side and boys on the other. It showed their different outfits.

At the end Daddy bought a t-shirt that says Mzungu. That means white person. We thought it should really say: That’s Mr Mzungu to you! I tried on some necklaces too.

Then we drove to the crater. We went past Lake Manyara and saw lots of storks in the trees. The bushes below the storks were all white because of the stork poo!

We stayed at a farm called Simba Lodge Farm. There were little mini blue cars that Vivi and I liked to play on. You had to pedal them. We also bought lots of fresh veges! We could see Mt Meru, which is 4,562m high.

Then we went to Arusha. We went to hundreds of different supermarkets, but they aren’t like English supermarkets. Mummy and Daddy said they were very expensive and didn’t sell all the things they wanted. We went to a market and bought lots of fruit from some ladies. We had to speak Swahili!

Then we went to stay at the Meserani Campsite. We went to the snake park there. It was very good. The guide showed us lots of snakes like: pythons, cobras, adders, black and greeen mambas and grass/water/sand snakes. There was a rhino snake with a horn, and one that had eyelashes! He told us all about their venom. They are the only place in all of Tanzania that keeps all the anti-venom here and if you are bitten they treat you for free. They had pictures of a python that ate a security guard who fell asleep, it got caught on an electric fence.

They had some spotted owls. He said that people here believe that if you hear the owl cry, then something bad will happen to you. They had a white backed vulture and a goshawk. They also had some nile crocodiles and some slender snouted crocodiles. There was a nile monitor, and lots of fruit bats in the tree.

They had some tortoises and we got to hold them. The tortoise hid its head and legs and then poked them out. At the end we were allowed to hold a grass snake. Daddy put it round his neck. I was scared, so I just held its tail.

Tomorrow we are going to a Masai Museum, then we are heading to the Ngorongoro Crater!

After we saw all the spices they showed us some perfumes and soaps. They smelled good, but we didn’t buy any.

Then another man climbed up a palm tree. To climb it he twisted a rope around his feet. He went really really high. I didn’t get very far up the tree when I tried! We tried the coconut water, but I didn’t like it. Daddy said it would taste better with some rum in it.

They also gave us some gifts made from palm tree leaves and flowers. I got a ring/bracelet, a necklace and a crown. Even Daddy got a tie and a hat!

Then was the best part and we had some fruit tasting. We tasted: pineapple, watermelon, grapefruit, mandarin, tangerine, orange, and cucumber. My favourite was the pineapple. They were delicious.

After the spice farm, we drove to see our friends on the beach. Then we drove down the coast and went to a forest where the Red Colobus monkeys lived. We didn’t think we would see them, because they are very rare. There are only 3000 in the world! But Mummy spotted some sitting in a tree!! They have red fur with white round their faces. They are different to other monkeys because they don’t have a thumb.

Then we went back to Stone Town. It was a really good day. I had a beef stir fry at the floating restaurant. We watched people jumping and doing flips into the water.

The next day we got the boat back to Dar es Salaam.