This would be a post about what we've been doing in Zanzibar and Malawi, but we're a bit preoccupied with news out of Dahab as we were there for a few weeks in February and grew quite fond of it and the friends we made there. We wish Dahab a speedy recovery, and wish everybody else would quit blowing shit up. It's irritating.

We just finished up a couple of days of game driving in Tanzania. First, we got up very early and piled into our Land Cruisers (with removable safari tops, of course), and drove through the Ngorongoro Crater. The crater was formed 5 million years ago when the volcano that was there erupted. Now it's a very happy home to many different animals, because there is always plenty of food and water. The animals that live there never have to migrate. Among the animals we saw there: water buffalo, black rhinos (very endgangered), elephants (only old bulls live in the crater), a cheetah, some lions, hyenas, jackals, zebras, tons of gazelles, and hippos. We actually ate a picnic lunch beside a pond full of hippos. They didn't seem to mind, though. I guess they weren't very Hungry Hungry Hippos. Or we didn't have any marbles to feed them.

After the crater, we drove on to the Serengeti. We drove around the park until sunset. Right off the bat, we saw a lioness hiding on a grassy hill above a watering hole, waiting for her prey to arrive for a drink that night. We thought that was lucky, until we saw that she was collared, and thus pretty easy to find. We kept driving and saw another lioness sleeping on top of a big rock. She was probably about two years old, but really big. A little gecko kept running up to her and poking her. We decided that it was some kind of initiation process for the Gecko Ghetto gang or something. As sunset approached, we saw some Masai giraffes, which are very cool. We actually saw a couple more lions in the distance. The sunset was very pretty.

The next morning, we were up and moving around 6:00. Not that any of the animals were awake at that time. We drove for almost an hour and half before we saw anything. Then, Score! A leopard sleeping up in a tree. We were told we were very lucky, because it is very rare to spot a leopard. We must have been VERY lucky, because after about 20 minutes, we found another leopard in a tree. She was awake, though, and watched us closely before getting bored and climbing down and wandering off. We came very close to two young male lions with manes. They were very handsome. They too got bored and wandered off. We saw more underwater hippos and a crocodile and monkeys and mongooses, and so much more. We even saw more cheetahs on the way out of the park after lunch.

I have always wanted to go on safari, and now I have, so I couldn't be happier at this moment. And the best part is, we still have 6 weeks of this stuff to do! We are on our way to Zanzibar right now, via Dar es Salaam. We will get there on Saturday, and should be diving on Sunday (Happy Birthday, Alex). I can't wait.

PS - Did I mention that I got my hair braided and some guy on the street just called me "Rasta Sister"? Yeah, I look cool.

The mountain gorillas were fantastic, the drive back to civilization, was not. We spent five hours in a van on the verge of self destruction, behind another van that was kicking up so much dust we were all completely covered in red muck by the time we got back to Lake Bunyoni. The region that Bwindi park (where the Gorillas live) is in, is called the Impenetrable Forest. Sadly there's not a ton of forest left to be impenetrable, but the name is still apt because the road really sucks.

We spent a further two relaxing days at Lake Bunyoni where we tried to manage some laundry drying in between torrential rains and beers, its not the most exhilerating recreation in the world, but it passed the time.

From Lake Bunyoni we went to Jinja, the Malaria Capital of Africa. Or so they told us. Fortunately, the mosquitoes were incredibly stupid even if they were plentiful and completely ignored any amount of repellant. I think we only managed to get two or three bites between us over the three days we were there, so we'll find out in about three weeks if we have Malaria.

While in Jinja, most of our group went on a white water rafting trip down the nile which hit four class 5 rapids. Our raft managed to get through all but the last rapid unscathed. Then came "The Bad Place"... we weren't actually supposed to go into The Bad Place because the water was too high, so the raft was basically guaranteed to flip due to the giant standing wave. Well, our guide completely failed to steer us around The Bad Place, so flip we did. You'll all see it someday, as we bought the DVD. We were held under for a bit and then unceremoniously spit out into more white water. We did a lot of not breathing and wondering when we were going to surface, and we sampled some Nile water, my leg banged into a rock under water and that hurt a bit, but we were out of it in about 30 seconds. My leg is better now aside from some slight abrasions. It looks really cool on the DVD.

The next day I tried Kayaking, which I've ruled out as a future hobby, its just really annoying, but I'm glad I tried it. Next watersport to try... Sledging.

We had a long drive back to Nairobi where we are swapping some passengers tomorrow before we get back on the road and head to Arusha.