MagnusAndCheryl

Serengeti Safari
Sunday, August 5th, 2007

For the last two weeks we have traipsed across Tanzania, in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro, through the endless savannah of the Serengeti, hiked the lush mountains of Lushoto and zipped across the turquoise-blue sea to the spice-laden tropical shores of Zanzibar.

For this leg of the trip we had the delightful companionship of Angie from Indiana and Robert "Call Me Rob" Marshall from London. They make an unorthodox travelling pair: Angie a keen hiker and Robert the quintessential sofa-loving and late-sleeping Englishman.

Neither guest, it transpired, was particularly happy to be roused to the lilting strains of Magnus outside their safari tent, to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Musical talent was apparently not appreciated, given the eye-watering torrent of abuse that flowed from their tents after the melodious 5am wake up call. Fortunately, all was forgiven after chancing upon a pride of lions on the floor of Ngorongoro Crater.

Your correspondents' credibility as expert naturalists and tour guides was dented during Magnus' short lecture on the importance of constant vigilance when eating lunch, lest the resident baboons snatch something. Half-way through the informative talk, a cheeky female nipped in, grabbed his lunch and ran up a tree to celebrate. How everyone except Magnus roared with laughter...

In the end, the Serengeti fulfilled all our wildlife fantasies with a swathe of wonderful sightings of the big cats, giraffe and all kinds of other animals. By night, Robert invariably insisted on stripping naked and serenading the ladies with nothing but a guitar and a nifty cowboy hat to preserve his modesty. The tune was off-key but his shapely calves drew admiring glances up and down the Zanzibarian beach. To avoid an encore, we raced into the sea for a midnight "skinny dip", only to be foiled strong slack tide - we ran and ran and ran, and were still left embarrassingly exposed with only our ankles covered in water.

For her part, Angie regaled queasy-gilled dinner tables with the blood-spattered details of her work as a nurse delivering babies, occasionally pausing to drop her camera strategically on distant parts of the beach as we wobbled home after a night of beach-side cocktails.

Check our Latest Adventures section below for pictures and stories from Kenya or Tanzania.

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