Tanzania: 13th September - 2nd November
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| Babu Ali (middle) and Mr Kassim (right) share their lunch of beef pilau with me, in the newly-opened and not-quite-finished North Nungwi Beach Hotel, Zanzibar. |
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| I sit on the bow looking for dolphins, with Zanzibar dead ahead as we return late in the afternoon after a day of fishing. |
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| A huge fire broke out on 20th September that took out a lot of the tourist centre in Nungwi, including several restaurants, dive centres and guest houses. This is Fat Fish restaurant the day after. Officially the fire was concluded to have been caused by an electrical problem. It was just lucky it happened during the day and not at night or a lot of people might have lost their lives. |
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| "If this is Paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower!" Mike & I dance to Talking Heads while Jacco looks on. |
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| Idi drives home while Jens and Johan catch some rays after a day's diving at Mnemba. |
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| The moon rises over the lagoon in front of the North Nungwi Beach Hotel. |
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| I say my goodbyes to Mr Kassim after a month as the only guest at the North Nungwi Beach Hotel. Tutaonana tena, Bwana Kassim! |
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| After a few bottles of Kilimanjaro at Sweet Eazy in Stonetown, limbering up for an eventful trip to the Garage Club. |
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| Me spoiling the view of the Masai Steppe from Irente Viewpoint, near Lushoto in the Usambara mountains. |
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| Some Usambara scenery as we walk towards Mtae. |
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| Most kids run away when you point a camera at them. This chap just looks into the camera with an amused expression. |
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| Just before Mtae, here's me with our guide Emmanuel, and someone else whose name escapes me. |
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| While the others smile for the camera, I look like I've just sat on a candle. Or maybe, as Huy helpfully suggests, I'm attempting to squeeze out a silent one. |
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| Tarangire National Park in the Rift Valley is not a famous park, but it has a very high concentration of animals and some beautiful scenery. |
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| This elephant trumpeted and then made a mock charge at us. he may only have been bluffing but it still scared the cr*p out of us! |
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| While we watched this lioness's companion stalk through the grass towards the antelopes in the distance, I couldn't help thinking that we weren't exactly adding to her element of surprise. |
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| This mud bath in Ngorongoro Crater was too shallow for the hippos really, so to keep their backs cool they had to roll over from time to time with their little legs in the air :-) |
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Our guide Moses readies the Landcruiser just before we depart from Ngorongoro. |
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| View of Kilimanjaro from the Moshi-Arusha bus. |
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| Kilimanjaro day 1: First night's camp, at 2980m. Feeling OK at this point. |
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| Kilimanjaro day 2: The clouds have rolled in but thankfully it doesn't rain. After an hour at our camp, at 3900m, I start to feel pretty rotten and can't eat any dinner. |
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| Kilimanjaro day 4: Day three had been wet and miserable; it rained all day, all our stuff was soaked and I was never so glad to see the sun rise as I was on this morning. But at least I was eating again and feeling OK, as our camp site was only a few metres higher than the previous night's, and I had acclimatised well. |
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| Kilimanjaro day 4: In good spirits as we break through the cloud into bright sunshine for the first time on the trek, just below base camp for our summit attempt. A few hours later, altitude sickness kicked in again and I was convinced I wouldn't be able to make it to the top. |
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| Kilimanjaro day 5: Dawn breaks over Kili's lesser peak of Mawenzi as we make the short walk from Stella Point to Uhuru Peak. My camera froze as I took this photo. Tears of joy were near, believe me, when I reached Stella Point and knew I was going to make it to the top. |
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| And at last, there was simply nowhere higher left to climb. |
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| Kilimanjaro day 6: Coming down was harder than going up, an endless slog through muddy forests. A much needed Coke at the bottom put me right. |
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