Safari in Tanzania as our Gappers say goodbye

We arrived home from Safari yesterday which was the most magical four days! The four of us girls were in a car together and Oli was in the all boys car. Heading out to the Serengetti was amazing, driving through Ngorongora National Park and watching the scenery change multiple times along the way was quite surreal. There were so many other Safari cars out but that never seemed to ruin the view (just sometimes the visibility from the dust!)
We took a little detour to visit Oldupai Gorge which has human remains dating back over 2 million years. We had stunning views from the musuem. Once we entered the Serengetti and neared the campsite we had no idea where to look - Annie was very good at spotting animals and got us up close to two very beautiful lionesses! The sunset was absolutely incredible - everytime we looked at it, the colours and scenery changed dramatically. Arrived at the campsite in the dark and had to pitch tents into rock hard ground which was testing for all after a very long day!!

Woke up early again the next morning and headed out on a game drive during which we saw a pride of lions, many gazelles, zebra and a family of elephants with 7 month old baby!

We also were lucky enough to spot a leopard up in a tree just off the track. This all happened in the first few hours of the day!! So so lucky, none of us could believe our luck. We also saw hippos which smelt quite disgusting but as we watched them, three lions strolled past the cars (probably just about a metre away from where we were sitting) before stalking a poor gazelle, we were again fortunate enough to see the kill.

We headed back to the campsite and packed up before heading off to the Ngorongoro site. We arrived in the late afternoon to a very different scene. It was absolutely freezing as we were right in the clouds but the views into the crater were amazing. When we woke up the next day it was very misty and poor visibility but we could see the five zebras that were playing around our tent - completely oblivious to us. It was so surreal. Heading down into the crater was a bit scary as even though our driver has had 15 years experience we could see NOTHING in front of us and the road wasn't the best. Down in the crater we saw many flamingos, hundreds of zebra and wilderbeast and were so lucky that we got to see two little lion cubs. On our way out we spotted four rhinos which meant we had seen the BIG FIVE!! As we drove around a corner to head out of the crater we spotted a hug male elephant on the side of the track. Stopping to take pictures and watch it was almost a bad idea as it was not happy and we could hear it rumbling and its ears were flapping. Luckily there was another car in front of us which scared it back to get past!! A huge sigh of relief was had by all as we drove off. Our last night was spent in Mosquito River before we headed back to camp yesterday.

The dining hall is looking good, we have plastered the floor, built a stage, meshed windows and cemented the outside walls, as well as trying some teaching and drawing pictures for the teachers to use. We said goodbye to the kids and school this morning which was quite sad as we have made a real connection with them. None of us are ready to come home just yet except i think we are all looking forward to a proper shower and being completely clean again!

We cannot believe that we are going to Zanzibar on Sunday as this marks the end of our trip - it is crazy how quickly it has gone. We have all bonded really well, with each other and the other three-monthers, it will be very sad ssaying goodbye in a few weeks.

Thats all from Moshi!!
Sophie