Absolutely Scrabulous

Ah, fresh air! We're down at Snake Park, in Tanzania. Rob considers this his third home. It's run by 'Ma and BJ', which sounds a little like a New Orleans cabaret act, but they're actually an elderly couple. All the profits go to financing the local Maasai tribes, and so far they've built a school, a campsite and a clinic. Rob's been looking forward to a 'cuddle from Ma'. He's been encouraging people to spend as much money in the bar here as possible. After all, 'it's for the children!'

We now have twenty-one people on the truck, and first impressions are very promising. It's like playing scrabble. Having had a rack consisting mainly of Qs, X and a couple of Zs, we've elected to throw them away and draw another eight. The rest day in Karen was like us missing a turn (wow, this analogy just gets better and better!). We've been rewarded with what appears to be a darned fine selection of people. Even the American's okay. We'd heard that a twenty-two year old American called 'Skyler' was joining us. You can imagine what we made of this, but he appears to be a thoroughly decent guy. Web designer, obviously, from Coco Beach, Florida.

My favourites so far, though, are two sisters traveling together. They're half Australian, half French, from Courcheval but schooled in England. They're hilariously posh and amusingly naive. We cabbed to a 'nice' restaurant yesterday. The fare was three hundred schillings (about two pounds twenty). I paid. Afterwards, Mia pushed eighty US dollars into my hand. I looked at it. I looked at her. I looked at it again. 'Are you sure?', I said. At this point, she began to look a little confused. I had to explain to her that a dollar was very roughly the same as a Euro, at which point the penny dropped. Very, very d'oh. Still, they seem like a good laugh. We've also had gap-year medic called Sam join us, a young couple from Sutton Caulfield, an Irish couple who've just climbed Killi. I did a lot of charity work last night, buying a lot of beers – after all, it's for the children. Even at this stage, I'd rather like to stay on until Vic Falls, so I've done the 'top bit'. After Zanzi, though, I have appointments and plans in the UK, so it'll be time to go home. I can see how one can get addicted to traveling, though.

This morning, we're off to a Masai village, then this afternoon most of us are off to Ngorogoro Crater and the vast expanse that is The Serengeti.