After one last evening in Nairobi, I said goodbye to my bodyguard Laura Croft Karen as she left for the airport. The next morning our Masai Mara group said goodbye one last time. Some of us were going on to the same trip south through Kenya, some were leaving for home and some were heading north on other trips.

We left Nairobi and headed south to Arusha, Tanzania. As we crossed the border, I got hassled because apparantly my visa was expired! Because I had to get so many visas for this trip, and because each country required about a week for processing, I had to send my passport to the different embassies back in march if I wanted to have them back in plenty of time. Apparantly, the Tanzanian Embassy granted my 3 month Visa beginning March 26th... which meant it expired on June 26th. I looked at my watch, June 27th. Damn. One day late. No extension, no sympathy, nothing. So I had to fork over the $50 bucks for another visa.

As we drove down to Arusha, the other city in Tanzania from which Mt. Kilimanjaro treks leave, it was a good feeling seeing the mountain again, this time without the anxiety of anticipating the climb as I had the week before. We stayed the night in the Meserani Snake Park Campground where there was a mini zoo of about 25 African Snakes. YUCK!

We were only staying in Arusha so that the following morning we could leave for a night in the Serengeti and the following night in the Ngorogoro Crater. We left early the next morning for the Serengeti where we saw loads of baboons, elephant, giraffe, Grants Gazelles, Agama lizard, cheetah, hyedana, topi, vultures, hippos, zebra, warthogs, impala, wildebeast,lionesses, vervet monkeys, eland, etc etc....

After the successful day of game viewing, we headed for the campsite. Along the way we came across a truck carrying fuel that had overturned and was leaking fuel. Not too suprising to see an overturned truck considering the condition of the roads and even less suprising given the speed at which the drivers take the roads. Now if this had happened in the U.S. surely there would have been some sort of emergency crew called, the driver would have been immediately evacuated, and someone would have been called to figure out how to properly clean up the fuel spill so that the animals don't get poisoned etc etc. But, here in Africa, apparantly the proper protocal in this type of situation is to - rush over with your empty containers to steal the free fuel that is spilling out all over the place.

Arriving at our campsite at almost dark, we put up our tents and were warned that it is not safe to wander around after dark. The tents are not fenced in or anything and its common to have animals lurking around at night looking for food.

The next morning we headed to Ngorogoro Crater, which was a volcano millions of years ago, but after it stopped being active, its peak collapsed inward, forming the floor of the crater. TONS of wildlife again - including our first black rhino, some flamingo, and a mini migration of wildebeast.

Now we are back in Arusha, and are leaving tomorrow for Dar Es Saalam and then the beaches of Zanzibar!!