Tuesday 19th July - Homeward Bound

5am alarm. 5.15am breakfast. Pack. Go. We were at the airport at 5.50am for our 6.50 flight. Needless to say, check in was a palaver with the usual assortment of taxes to be paid and much tipping involved. One day, we'll work out our tax and tips bill for this trip! A short, pleasant flight to Dar es Salaam, and then a delay to our BA flight home (by 1 hour 15 minutes). Somehow, we were called through early and I missed my last shopping experience! Mind you, buying a cup of tea and coffee at the airport was a drama in itself so maybe not getting in to the proper shops was a good thing.

So here I am, on BA046 to London, wondering what the future holds for my new job, and looking forward to planning our next trip. The list of places to visit is long, and so, who knows when we'll be back to Tanzania and Zanzibar? The people here are so lovely - even up to the last people we saw at the airport gate... so polite and genuine.

All good things must end, and so does this honeymoon. But it will never be forgotten and we both feel enriched as a result of the experiences we've had. We've decided that in future, we'll try to "travel" as opposed to "have holidays". To learn and appreciate other cultures is so rewarding, and I don't feel that I've captured even a fraction of that in this journal. We are also blessed to be able to mix luxury with learning, and that is fantastic.

Monday 18th July - Jozani and Stonetown

We woke at 6 and got up to see the sun rise and go lagoon/reef walking. We didn't make it to the reef (which is a lot further than it seems) but we did see starfish in amongst the many sea urchins. Apart from some locals, nobody else was out. Then I had a swim in the pool and we took our last breakfast at Plams. We said our farewells and reluctantly checked out.

We'd arranged for Zantours to stop at Jozani Forest en route to Stonetown. We were glad we had as there is a rainforest walk to see trees and a troop of red colobus monkeys - all jumping and playing right next to us. Lovely animals. Then we did a mangrove walk - there's something about mangroves that I like, although I do find them slightly mysterious. We saw a mongoose along the way.

Back in the minibus, we drove past schools and markets and then into the busy outskirts of Stonetown. Mohammed, our driver, showed us Dr Livingstone's house in the new town area and the road (an old creek) that split the old and new towns. The market was heaving and we realised that we were not going to be comfortable here walking about on our own. Stonetown is a big place and we don't know it at all - we only have this afternoon here to explore. Mohammed arranged a guide for us from a group gathered outside our hotel - the Serena Inn. He's a young guy called Jackson and only wanted $30 for a three hour walk, including our entry fees, a cold drink and Zanzibari cake!

We checked in first - they gave us the honeymoon suite on the top floor, with a HUGE balcony overlooking the sea - it had a massive hammock on it. We met Jackson just after 1 and began our walking tour of Stonetown. What a place! What a guide! We learned a lot and it was good to have the senses and brain stimulated again after our decadent lifestyle at the Palms.

As we walked around the markets, I asked Jackson if we could come out of the fish market quite quickly - as the smell was overwhelming and they were brushing up fish scales all over our feet! A huge sailfish lay on the floor in front of us and there was a distinct lack of ice/refrigeration. From this, we passed on the meat market and the chicken market - although the latter was noticeable because of the squawking of chickens being slaughtered and the river of blood running out of the entrance! As we passed, we all turned to each other and exclaimed "Chicken Market." The fruit and veg market was brilliant - an array of colour - and I finally got to smell a durian fruit, and taste red bananas. We bought some spices there, too.

We visited a shop called One Way for some soft cotton robes - similar to those we'd had in our room at Palms and really liked. I was also tempted by the Khangas on sale and bought a couple of those to bring home. Jackson told us that tourism here is increasing. We had a good look at all of the different styles of doors for which Stonetown is famous. It's a hugely cosmopolitan place, more so that I had imagined. A very eclectic mix of influences and residents. Jackson seemed to know everybody we passed, which amused me. He took us to see the slave market and chambers - very, very sobering.

After he'd treated us to coke and cake, we went to a museum. He also pointed out Freddie Mercury's birthplace. Hmm, I'm not sure - could've pointed at any old house! He was boasting about Osibisa having played a gig in a small bar we passed by - and after a few minutes trying to remember their big hit, we both burst out singing the song at the same time! "Everybody, do what you're doing, Smile will bring a sunshine day". Funny! And now, every time I hear that song, I smile and remember my incredible honeymoon, Stonetown and our wonderful guide, Jackson.

At 4pm we arrived back at Serena Inn, having seen so much in just 3 hours! We'd done more today than in the last week! We went for a swim, a Tusker beer and our last hour of African sun. Then we watched the dhows sailing by from our balcony and got ready for dinner.

We left our hotel to find Emerson & Green hotel, where we had reservations in the Tower Top restaurant. This is the tallest building in Stonetown. We'd decided to use $$ gifted by our friends Lynn and Doug for this treat. We found our way there without any problems, but didn't stop to shop as we wanted to be on the roof top at sunset. Needless to say, the view was amazing. So was the food - and the ambience (barring a noisy 4-some of Americans and South Africans behind us who were playing oneupmanship all evening). A solo violinist played beautiful, melodic and slightly melancholic tunes as were were served 8 courses. We started with cocktails - I had a Dawa: cloves, honey, cinnamon sugar, limes and Tanzanian gin. We then had nibbles - nuts, onion rings and cassava chips. Then our first starter of poppadom with guacamole and olives. Then, a wonderful gazpacho. Next, octopus and kingfish masala with cinnamon rice and veggies. I tried not to recall the fish market! I did try some octopus - it was "ok". Then, fillet beef stuffed with veg and served with mash and baked green tomatoes. Egg custart tart topped with coconut and almonds. Passion fruit sorbet. And coffee. Unbelievable! We had south african rose and white wines. All this for just $70. As we left, they tried to send us home in a tuk tuk - I refused because I have a thing about another human being pulling me along. Doesn't seem right to me. Instead, they sent a hotel porter to walk us back to our hotel. Stonetown does change after dark and is slightly sinister! Another tip... next time, we'll bring plenty of $1 bills! We went straight to bed - we have a 5am alarm call.

Sunday 17th July, The Palms

Woke at 6. Got up at 8 for an early breakfast. Walked up to Sultan's again after eating and we got very hot and bothered so came back for a swim and a vanilla milkshake. Roy's nails are so long he looks like a girl!

Lunch was bean dip and chapati; Samosa with coconut chutney; King prawns for me, tomato & ham panini with chips for Roy. Followed by grilled pineapple and coconut ice cream. Sauvignon Blanc.

We had another swim and chat with other guests, and a beach walk where we bought a huge picture of elephants round a baobab tree! Then it was time for us to get ready for our bit pamper session we've booked: The Sultan's Bath experience at the Spa. We've used some $$ that we were given as a wedding gift by Gary and Renee for this.

They dressed us in huge white dishdashas and led us to the room. The "Sultan's Bath" itself was quite disappointing - it looked huge on the photos in the brochure but in reality is about 8" deep and full of hot water with oil and petals floating around in it. We both sat there, feeling like idiots and wanting to get out.... However, the following massage was lovely and I was amazed at how strong the two tiny african girls who did them were. The ambience was fantastic - lovely classical music, scented flower bowls under the bed, tea lights and incense and petals everywhere. So relaxing that Roy fell asleep and was snoring about 15 minutes in to the massage, which gave me the giggles. We finished with peach tea on a huge bed.

Getting back to the villa, sundowners arrived with tiny potato bhaji nibbles. And in our bathroom, they'd lit tealights all around the bath, filled it with petals and left a chilled bottle of prosecco on the side. Wonderful!

We walked around to the bar at 8-ish... it seemed quiet, most people were already in dinner. We could see that the banda was set up for dinner on the beach and we assumed it was for Jackie and John a young couple (both doctors) who are staying here. Roy was noseying at it and came back saying that their beach dinner must have been cancelled due to the wind, as it was empty. Minutes later our waiter appeared "Sir, Madam - are you ready for dinner?" Yes, we were. "Oh good, you're having dinner on the beach this evening" he announced. Us? We were gobsmacked and both asking the other who had arranged this! There was a force 10 gale blowing, but that didn't ruin the romance of the setting... fantastic! Roy kept saying "Wow". The food was superb. Tiny little white bread "puffs" with artichoke dip. Then our first starter of asparagus quiche. It was amazing, the pastry was spot on. Then the second starter! Cigal - rock lobster - wrapped in parma ham and baked. Served with some sort of sauce. For mains, Roy had pork, marinated in ginger, soy and honey and served with rice, veggies and sauce. I had snapper cooked with sliced potato and served with green beans and dauphinoise potato. We then had grilled fruit and ice cream.

We decided to go back to the bar for our coffees and Amarula - as the wind was getting fierce and kept blowing out the hurricane lamps in the banda. What a fantastic treat they'd put on for us. My only grumble is that they served prosecco all through dinner and I'd have liked to switched to ordinary. I'm a whinger, aren't I?

We were both exhausted and have another big day and new adventure tomorrow. So to bed at 10 again.

Saturday 16th July - The Palms

I woke for sunrise, but didn't get up - it looked cloudy anyway. A very mixed day - bit of rain and cloud around. Not sure whether to go snorkelling. We two intrepid explorers might not be able to cope with a touch of bad weather!

Breakfast of muesli, fruit, toast and jam. After breakfast, Roy went for his second Thai massage while I sunbathed. Ailsa and Justin, who we met at Selous, passed by our beach banda. They stopped for a chat and were telling me that their second safari in Ruaha was not as luxurious as Selous - and they still didn't see leopard!

We decided to try the snorkelling and left at 12.45. We'd been told it would take about 2 hours but it was already 1.30 before we left the beach! (The trip started at Breezes hotel next door to us).

We motored out by boat to a reef just off the beach past Sultan's Palace hotel. The water was clear and warm and the coral reef was beautiful. Depth varied - some places the reef was only 4ft below us, other times really deep. I saw a trigger fish and lots of small colourful reef fish. I was most impressed by the coral itself - the first time we'd seen so much of it up close. The sea was pretty choppy and so we were getting a bit seasick, just snorkelling! Strangely enough, it was smoother back in the boat so we got back in.

Disaster struck when the waterproof casing on my digital camera leaked. The camera is ruined. I'm scared that the data card is also ruined and my hundreds of holiday pics on there are gone....

I later tried the card in Kathleen's camera and luckily the pics are all still there. Phew. And the seal leaked because I hadn't fitted it properly... my own fault.

Both felt a bit rough as we waited for the divers to get back on the boat - why do divers always have to faff about so much? It's like they have to prove that they're superior to us mere snorkellers! Finally we set off but not straight back to Breezes. Because of the tides, we had to go in the opposite direction and moor up off the beach, where they'd made a shallow "path" in the sea. The idea was that you walk out of the sea on it and off the beach in to a bus. The path was both dangerously slippy and dotted with sea urchins! Sea urchins also surrounded the path so we didn't dare fall off it - especially as we had bare feet! Finally we reached the beach - there were hundreds of steps to climb up to get off it, and at the top - the Breezes dala dala. Oh joy - one small bus and 30 of us to pack in to it! Some people had to sit on top. Once we got moving we were hit by clouds of dust coming in off the road and swirling round the bus.

Back at Breezes at 20 to 4 - slightly later than expected! Chef had done us coconut prawns and mayo dip, followed by grilled red snapper with salad. Both delicious and very light. Probably the least we've eaten all holiday. We did manage to polish off the coconut from within the shell that held the prawns!

After lunch we went for a walk, up past the Sultan's palace almost to where we'd been snorkelling. The next morning, we followed our own footsteps along the same stretch of beach. After our walk we had sundowners and drank them in the jacuzzi. Calamari canapes were superb. I've never had squid before that wasn't like rubber bands. We got ready for dinner and had a drink before going in to eat. We ate: parmesan crostini with proscuitto; goat cheese salad; lobster "malhale" for Jan. Instead of lobster, Roy had beef curry with spiced couscous. This was followed by a fabulous chocolate souffle and coffee and amarula.

A live Taarab band of about 12 musicians played throughout dinner tonight - it's kind of like an arabian jazz/blues sound - really good.

Early to bed - I'm really tired tonight so we went in about 10.

The Palms - Friday 15th July

A beautiful sunrise, followed by a sunny morning. We had been told to expect showers. It is like walking on velvet here when we walk on the beach after the tide goes out - beautiful.

How many times can I use the words: beautiful, amazing, incredible? Well it is.

Breakfasted alone on the veranda: fruit juice, cereal and pastries. Then we spent the morning in our beach banda (like a private "tented" area on the beachfront with a huge double bed inside and two sun loungers outside). Roy had a Thai massage. The masseur promised to sort his shoulder out "90%" in two sessions.

For lunch, we ate veggie pizza/carbonara for starters. Lobster/Pork for main and passionfruit sorbet to finish. And Chardonnay. After lunch, we phoned home and it was lovely to speak to mum and dad.

Then we went walking in the lagoon. We couldn't find any starfish, but we did see plenty of sea urchins! Lucky that we'd put aqua shoes on..............

Then it was time for afternoon tea. I don't think an hour goes by without food or drink here. Later on we walked over to the local shops at Breezes hotel and on the beach, and we bought some souvenirs. Then back home. We thought we'd missed sundowners, but out of nowhere, our butler appeared with cocktails and mini pizzas, plus this evening's dinner menu. Choices to start were hot crab & crostini, smoked sailfish/cream cheese on toast, or potato bhaji with coconut chutney. Then swahili chicken curry with mango chutney or mixed seafood. Followed by tropical fruit soup with vanilla ice cream. It was good - as usual - but not the best we had here.

After dinner we took coffee on the veranda and chatted with Kathleen and Dave. This was our latest night ever, must have been 11.30pm before we got to bed...............

Thursday 14th July - Ras Nungwi to the Palms

Chef Lars must have overslept, because the scones weren't ready when we arrived for breakfast at 7.45am!! Never mind, toast and croissants were just as good. Hours later, I'd be regretting eating them. We were due to be picked up at 10am but due to the inevitable mix up, it ended up being 11am. No big deal.

Our driver told us it took 2.5 hours to get to Palms from Ras Nungwi. It went so fast, though, as there was so much to see along the way. Remember that we hadn't done this trip in daylight. It was amazing just how lush and verdant the landscape is. Really, really tropical. And the villages are all quite different - dull, drab Nungwi - the most ugly village in the most beautiful setting . Red, brown Kendwa, which seemed more in keeping with its surroundings. We passed 4 or 5 young boys on a cart being pulled by an ox. I'm trying to remember what else we saw. Women out working and men lying about under thatched roof open sided huts. I don't know what the purpose of these huts was other than to provide resting places for lazy men. Why is it that the women seemed to do all the work? We passed several schools - also open sided. As we got to the centre of the island the feel of everything changed. First we passed through spice plantations. We saw women picking things in the fields and also drying out their spices in large rectangles outside their houses. The variety and colour of the kangas that they wear is incredible. Then we moved into a very commercial crossroads. The traffic increased, and so did our driver's risk taking as he hurtled past bikes and daladalas, beeping his horn constantly. "Careless drivers!" He announced, after one near miss when both he and a tourist minibus had refused to give way to the other. Apparently it was the other guy's fault for not signalling correctly. Also, the pushbikes seemed reluctant to move out of the middle of the road. Our driver showed us a pavement - the first one I think I'd seen on Zanzibar - and said it had been built for bikes but that they preferred to stay in the road! I know where I'd have been!

As we got closer to Stonetown we passed miles of shops, selling all sorts of things: mattresses, shoes, hats, even billy cans made out of empty tins with a handle attached. And we saw a huge outdoor market with enormous piles of fruit and coconuts everywhere. Eventually, bypassing Stonetown, we hit the road to the South and East Coast. Things seemed to get more upmarket. The roads were better - in fact, one was lined by mango trees either side, and had apparently been planted by or for a Sultan. Even the school kids were posher here - with cream and blue uniforms. The girls looked like little nuns! Some were carrying books on their heads and they look so graceful and confident of not dropping them. Another common site was bundles of firewood - on heads, on motorbikes - you name it. I think that the villagers sell it.

The villages became fewer and the green tropical /palm tree lined roads turned in to Jozani Forest. This is the last rainforest in Africa and home to red colobus monkeys which aren't found elsewhere. We finally reach the bumpy road to the beach hotels. Luckily we're only on it for about 15 minutes before we pass Breezes Beach Club and draw into the Palms. Passing two security checks (this is worse than the constant police checks on the main road where they're constantly checking for licenses, road tax and insurance.) As we pull in, a welcoming party greets us. A butler, Ali, takes us to meet Lillian, the assistant manager. She sits us down over orange juice and explains how things work. Then she shows us to our villa. I think we played it fairly cool until she'd gone. Then we started leaping around like kids at Christmas! The place was so huge, it took us 10 minutes to explore. And wow, it was incredible. Absolutely gorgeous. I won't go into detail yet!

Then it was time for lunch. Where to start? There was a choice of two starters and two mains. We opted for lobster salad and tandoori chicken. Lobster like this, I've never had. Now I understand why people rave on it. Even before all of that they brought out garlic bread and guacamole. The chicken, with naan and raita, was delicious. Followed by cinnamon ice cream. Washed down with Tusker and Kili beers. Now, how DO we work up an appetite for dinner??

I think I'm going to like the Palms. It is so peaceful and the staff and other guests (there are only 6 villas here in total) seem lovely.

We took a little sun this afternoon and then went for a walk along the long, unspoiled beach. The sun was low and there was a strong breeze - lovely for walking. We got a little hassle from a local kid who was trying to sell us a lift on his pushbike or a photograph of himself! Budding entrepreneur! A gang of teenage village kids came in on a dhow whooping and yelling as they ran up to the edge of the village. Shouting in Swahili, one of them, a particularly exuberant chap, began beating the ground with palm leaves. We watched and waited with baited breath to see what happened next. Surely they'd landed a monster catch out at sea? Nothing emerged from the boat, and so eventually we wandered off, disappointed. Must have just been boys having fun. Another teenager stopped us to ask if we lived near Manchester United! We headed back to Palms, stopping at the Breezes dive centre first to check out snorkelling trips.

As we wandered up our path to Frangipani Villa (somebody must have known I love that flower!) we were just behind the butler bringing our sundowners. A cocktail called French 75 - something to do with WW1 and getting married! He'd also brought canapes of fish fingers and tartare sauce. Does the food never stop here? We had a dip in the jacuzzi on our front porch and got ready for dinner. The bar was quiet, we'd wrongly assumed that maybe guests would gather here to chat before eating. Never mind, we sat on the colonial style veranda with spritzer (Roy) and G&T (me) and a bowl of popcorn! We had a good natter before going through to eat. Our starters of Prawn Sushi and veg Tempura were great. Oh, and the crispy bread/tapenade was also good. Mains were unbelievable - half a duck with plum sauce for Roy and a huge piece of coconut dusted fish for me. With veggies and rice - we hardly touched the rice. Dessert was flambeed banana and pineapple with ice cream. Delicious! Good strong coffee and Baileys finished us off nicely. Everybody else seemed to be back in their villa by 9.30pm... we retired just after 10 to watch tv.

No ocean crashing outside to keep us awake tonight........

Wednesday 13th July - Ras Nungwi

6.40am. A beautiful sunrise. No dhows yet. They're late today! What I haven't yet seen is the sun coming straight out of the ocean - it's always too cloudy. Maybe later this week, at Palms? I can hear the dove again, it is the one that Bruno was always imitating at Selous.

We have decided that 7 nights here is too long. There isn't much to do and to go on trips means enduring the pot holes in the roads. Today we're planning to walk to Nungwi, right down to the western side of the village. Both of us are full of cold. Not great!

Well, it was a beautiful sunny day, so the walk to Nungwi was cancelled as we'd have frazzled in the heat. We did the Sunset cruise though... sailing around the Nungwi headland on a dhow. No engines. It was lovely. We had beers and nibbles on board and got as far as Kendwa on the western side.. that looked nice, lots of activity on the beach and lively bars and restaurants. After watching the sunset from Nungwi point, they put the motors on and we headed back to the hotel. Due to tides, we had to drop anchor a hundred yards or so from shore and swim back in! Luckily it wasn't pitch dark yet!

Dinner was accompanied by a free bottle of sparkling honeymoon wine! Nice. We had liver pate and chutney/toast, soup, fillet beef and rosti/veg/sauce followed by like an egg custard for dessert. It was all good, although the meat is not great quality here. I suppose its our own fault for not sticking to fish! Another early night for tomorrow we get ready for our move to the Palms.

Tuesday 12th July - Ras Nungwi

Very hot and humid today. No sun though. Torrential rain at 10.30. Rained on and off, heavily at times, until 4pm and then was cool and breezy. Everything feels damp. This feels like the endless day - we took a walk down the south east coastline but had to turn back due to rain. And after 3pm you can't walk far on the beach because of the tides. So we ate, slept and read. I have a heavy cold and must check the symptoms of sleeping sickness!

Also today we started with our paranoia about how we don't speak to anybody.

A huge group of Americans has moved in. They are already hogging the pool area. They have lots of children and I listened to them at breakfast consulting with chef Lars about dietary requirements. How sad to hear Lars agreeing to cook them burgers and pizza. The food here is so good - the kids should at least try some of it. Lars is funny - he claims his wild food inventions (chicken and banana soup being just one example) are due to his parents having dropped too much acid in the '60s!

I'm starting to feel a bit outfaced with food. Maybe it has something to do with the sausage sandwich, scone, and prawn and lobster cakes I ate. Tomorrow is our Sunset cruise. Let's hope that the weather has improved by then.

Dinner was barracuda pate, leek and potato soup, chicken zimbabwe style or sailfish and a passion fruit and mango cheesecake. After coffee and liquers, we called it a day. That'd be another 10pm bedtime!

Monday 11th July - Ras Nungwi

After an early breakfast (have I mentioned how good the home made scones are???) we sat on our veranda until 9-ish and then got our sunbeds for the day sorted out. We watched two dive boats go out, but no-one else appeared on the beach this morning. Odd. We decided to take a walk to Nungwi village, along the shore, as soon as the tide was out far enough. We stopped to visit a turtle sanctuary where a young village boy showed us around. It was so peaceful there. They also had tortoise and python. I told our guide that tortoise were popular and expensive in the UK - slight misunderstanding as he thought I meant as food! We watched a rat cowering in the corner of the python cage awaiting its fate. But it was obviously not feeding time so we didn't have to witness his demise.

We walked back slowly to find that it was already 12.30. Another morning had passed so quickly. It was cloudy on and off with some rain, but when the sun did appear it was blistering hot! We watched Mr Christopher giving another superb display of kite surfing.

Dinner was a buffet - chicken and banana soup (actually very good) followed by an assortment of salads, crab, fish, steak, lobster, shrimps, potatoes and local maize. There was a wide choice of dessert so we tried all of them! Rude not to. It was nice, but not as good as the usual 4 course menu. Bed at 10. Slept till 7.

Sunday - Ras Nungwi - The ones that got away

We were woken at 6, but no tea and biccies. We got driven into Nungwi village to where our boat "Countdown" was moored. A few villagers were walking up to work in the hotel, but most, judging by the closed up huts, were still in bed asleep.

We seem them walking along our beach - the men going spear fishing in the lagoon and the women carrying all manner of things to and fro - e.g. firewood - often on their heads. Sometimes we see children, singing as they look in the rock pools for food.

Nungwi village comprises small grey square stone huts with corrugated tin or thatched roofs. How can somewhere so beautiful from the beach have such a drab interior?

We were taken out to the boat by tender. We took a packed "brunch" on board, provided by the hotel in a huge cool box. No idea what was in there.

Captain Ali and his boys - Alis and Joshua - didn't talked much but showed us the basics of how to reel fish in. We sat on top of the boat. It was pretty rough as we moved into the Pemba channel. I kept focusing on the horizon, wondering how on earth I was going to be able to keep doing so for 6 hours. Apart from being boring, it actually took a fair deal of concentration and I'm not convinced it helped much with the sea sickness.

We saw two big schools of dolphin on the way out - we were headed for the deep channel between Zanzibar and Pemba islands. Shortly after hitting deep blue sea one of the lines went up. Unfortunately this one got away. Bad technique or bad luck? Off we went again, and soon after another bite. Ali said it was going to be a small fish. Roy brought it in but it was only a half fish - something else had eaten the body of the fish and we got the head. Deja vu from when this happened to him in the Maldives! At least an hour went by before the next bite. This time, it was a pretty big Barracuda. As he was hauled out of the water they hit him over the head with a big wooden stick. Poor thing! We'll be eating this tonight at dinner.

Out in the channel we "trawled" round in circles. The endless swells, and a feeling of going nowhere were making me feel ill. Eventually, we asked Captain Ali to take us back in, slowly. It was boring as hell when there were no fish biting. Nothing to concentrate on. Even Roy was feeling queasy. On the way back in we had some minor excitement when we caught a small dorado. Ali claimed this as the crew's dinner. Fair enough!

We arrived back just an hour before the trip was officially due to end. When we got back to the hotel, we were hungry and decided to retrieve our brunch (we'd been too seasick to eat it on the boat and hadn't had a thing all day). Gone! Every morsel apart from the ham croissants! The crew took everything else. So we went to lunch in the hotel restaurant and then to the pool where I promptly fell asleep. I was woken by heavy rain and so went back to the room and slept for 1.5 hours. We ordered tea and cake when we woke up - well, we had missed breakfast!

We lazed around until dinner. Tonight, chef Lars came to see us in the bar and advised that he would serve up our Barracuda in five different ways - sashimi, poached in coconut milk and lime (my fave), plain grilled, coated with mustard, coated with basil pesto. All were lovely, and came served on a huge platter as well as our normal menu! Which was samosas with chutney, soup (which we skipped!), lobster satay with saffron rice. Oh and chocolate mousse. We chatted with a Norwegian family this evening who told us that there had been bombings in London on the tube, killing 50 people. This was a shock - after no news for a week we'd had no idea about it. We also emailed home tonight to let people know that all was well. We were in bed by 10, which is why I'm writing this at 6.45 next morning, watching the sun rise as fishing dhows make their way past our balcony.

Saturday 9th July - Ras Nungwi

At 7am I was on the balcony writing this journal. Then I got very hot and went back indoors. Today was sunny, hot and breezy with a rough sea. Which isn't great news because tomorrow is the day we go deep sea fishing. The boat guy warned us there would be swells. Hmmm. Luckily he came to find us today to discuss the trip as I'd got it in my head we were going the day after tomorrow.
Another day of doing nothing. Reading in the hammock, watching kite surfers. Oh, and we booked on to the sunset Cruise for our last evening here. So - it's another 6am start tomorrow.
Roy has discovered the masseuse here, she "does" you on the beach for $10. He's having his back done every day.
His watched stopped so we just sort of guessed when it was time to go out for dinner. Not a bad guess - it was 7.10 and we thought it was 7.30. We had nibbles and beer before a dinner of Tuna Carpaccio and a lovely soup of tamarind, coconut and plantain. Then HUGE prawns, Zanzibari style. Finished off with a chocolate and banana pancake. We went to bed after coffee as we have an early start. Also, we're getting a bit irritated by the Stepford Wives and Husbands in the hotel. They're all young(ish) southerners with the same accents and are boring to eavesdrop on. Let alone to chat to.

Ras Nungwi - Friday 8th July

By 7am and I was up and unpacking our cases. We went to breakfast at about 9. It's a very good buffet with lots of homemade scones and breads, alongside the usual fried stuff. The fresh fruit is lovely.

Today was very overcast, but we took some loungers by the beach and as usual I plastered myself in sun cream. As usual, Roy didn't and is now living proof that you CAN burn through cloud!

An uneventful day - deliberately so. Watched the dive boats going out. Lazed around reading. Roy had a massage. Had lunch. Lazed around some more. Got ready for dinner. I felt like a human again - in that I painted my nails, plucked my eyebrows, used a hairdryer and wore make up at dinner! I will secretly admit that I quite liked the "wash 'n go" lifestyle at Selous - I'm lazy like that.

The people here don't really socialise much. People avoid eye contact and sit alone. It feels odd after the Selous. There are a lot of Americans here, too. Dinner was superb - Grilled Sardines, Soup, Tuna with a Citrus Hollandaise or Jerk Pork with Bean Salsa. Followed by Fruit Kebabs with mint "pesto". The wine list is mainly South African, and we have yet to choose a bad one...

After Dinner we had coffee and Baileys then headed to bed as the bar was deserted and we were both tired.

On the way back to our room (we're still getting used to having a key) I saw a shooting star. My first one ever - so many first times this week! First husband, First Safari...

Thursday 7th July - The Road to Nungwi

We flew out from Siwandu airstrip to Dar es Salaam where somebody met us to check us in for the ZanAir flight to Zanzibar. We had about an hours wait. Not too bad. It had been fascinating watching the landscape change below us as we left the bush and headed back to the City.

Both flights were tiny planes and the safety demo on ZanAir was hilarious. Just the pilot shouting things at us that we couldn't really hear! Thank goodness it was only a 20 minute hop across. We landed at about 7pm and at Zanzibar airport it had been raining. We were struggling to fight off the many "baggage" guys and so caved in and allowed one of them to take our two bags. Imagine our indignance when he carried them about 15 feet out of the airport and dumped them on the pavement - "I'm not allowed beyond here" he insisted. But still demanded payment!

Our rep met us and we wheeled our bags through puddles to the minvan which had come to collect us. We couldn't set off straight away though, as our driver was doing evening Prayers. The rep settled us into the van with some cold drinks and luckily the driver was back soon and off we went... through the busy outskirts of Stonetown (Zanzibar's capital) up to the North of the island. Stonetown was hectic - jampacked "dala dalas" (buses) with conductors hanging off the back blocked our way as they stopped... seemingly every 20 yards. Our driver mainly just skirted round them. We saw a string of oxen in the middle of the road and donkey and cart wending its way out of town.

A few other things struck me as unusual or interesting. Firstly, once we got out of town, I noticed how many people were walking along the unlit and unpaved roadsides. And so many with no shoes. We seemed to climb uphill for a long time - through villages with roadside openair televisions - where groups of people sat on the floor avidly watching. Boys and men stood to pee on the roadside, and one friendly chap even threw an apple core at us, hitting the windscreen. Welcome to Zanzibar!

We felt a real sense of this being somewhere "different". Although as when we were in Bali, it was unlikely that we would see much more of real Zanzibar once we hit our tourist haven.

Also along the way we went through several police barriers in the road. Every time we did so, our driver would tell us "police station" and we passed with out incident. Although one guy did peer in the van and take a good look at us before strutting off. Power!

Finally we came off the main road at a sign saying "Nungwi - 5km". It took us another 30 minutes to get there! The road was truly hideous - pot holes everywhere. To avoid them, our driver took to driving in the ditches at the side, narrowly avoiding trees along the way. Finally we arrived at Ras Nungwi. It is near Nungwi Village on the Northern tip of the island. A padlocked gate and security guard greeted us.

The welcome at Reception was nowhere near as warm and personal as it had been at Selous - but the place looked very nice indeed. And hey - this is a 32 room hotel, not a 4 tent Private Selous! We were taken to our room and more or less went straight to dinner. The food here is wonderful - Seafood Spring Roll, Pumpkin Soup, Fillet Steak and Coffee couscous and Rice Pudding. All washed down with a fantastic South African Shiraz. However, it wasn't quite delivered with the loving care of Issa!

I pined for Selous - as this point I still needed to mentally transition from Game Park to Beach Resort. After dinner we went straight back to our room and had a quick shower before bed. Having an Ocean Front room is great - apart from the horrendous crashing of the ocean all night long. I slept ok. Roy was destined never to get a full night's sleep at Ras Nungwi. Even in the ridiculously sized quadruple bed.

http://www.rasnungwi.com/main.php

The morning after the night before.... 2nd July - 7th July

Saturday 2nd July:
We began our honeymoon at the Sportsman's Arms in Wath-in-Nidderdale - one of my favourite places in the whole world. The complimentary champagne in our bedroom went unopened and was, in fact, donated to Lorraine and Paul as a "thank you" for volunteering to take our gifts back to our house and do some clearing up there at the same time.

Slightly hungover, we set off for Manchester Airport at 11am. Through beautiful, but overcast, Greenhow Hill, Grassington and Skipton. We reached the airport in good time to check in for our 2.15 flight to Heathrow. Dad, as ever, had been our chauffeur to the airport, and we said goodbye to him and Mum, happy and excited for our first adventure as Mr and Mrs Holt.

And here I am, 2 days later, sitting at the desk on our veranda in Selous Safari Camp - writing up our adventure so far. I feel like I Karen Blixen in Out of Africa! The only noise (apart from Roy) is the singing of birds and the gentle grunting of hippos. This gentle grunting will, in a few hours, have turned into a cacophony which after a while, can drive you quite mad.

Sunday 3rd July:
Selous Safari Camp is a truly magical place. I can think of nowhere better to start married life. Aside from the luxury of the tents and the wonderful food and service, it is the setting which makes it so special. Just 10 minutes from the airstrip, you arrive to a welcome party of Game Park Guides and your personal butler - with Angela and Sandra (the Camp managers) at the helm. But I digress.... and am being distracted by watching an elephant crossing the lake in front of me, with a group of impala making their way back down to the water's edge, via the path in front of our veranda.

Back to Manchester. The lady who checked us in was also due to visit Tanzania and Zanzibar in October. The couple next to us were starting a round the world trip, and due to visit there later in the year. What I like about travel to places like this, is that everybody is headed for a unique experience and adventure. Fly with Thomson to Ibiza and it's clear that most of us will: eat, drink, sunbathe. Not one person we've met yet will be doing the same holiday as we are. Another couple were going to hike for 4 days around Ngorongoro Crater and then climb "Kili".

After a one hour delay we reached Heathrow. Quick transfer to T4 and the shops... oh - after throwing a cup of tea all over Roy! I bought the pen I write this journal with. Roy bought me the Swarovski Heart. Very apt! We also got him some after shave... quite a conservative shop for me.

I didn't enjoy the flight to Dar es Salaam... couldn't sleep, had restless legs all night. We landed in Dar at 7am local time. The usual "foreign airport chaos syndrome" prevailed. So we took a little while to clear immigration, but were finally on our honeymoon proper.

Elizabeth from CC Africa met us, and suggested that we check into a hotel (at our expense) rather than go to the Slipway, as had been suggested by our UK based agent. It was Sunday (Slipway is an area of shops and cafes) and nothing would open until late. The chance of a sleep and a shower was just too good to resist so we booked into the Movenpick Royal Palm Hotel for the morning. $90 and a bit of sleep later, we had some lunch there (our first taste of the rather good African beer!) and then headed off back to Dar Airport. This time to the Domestic Terminal which consisted of a waiting hall and a pair of scales for check in. We got our small plane down to Selous at about 3pm. I was worried about the weather - it felt cloudy during the flight - however on landing at "Selous International Airport" the sun was blazing hot.

The car trip into Dar had been interesting - we passed Masai Tribespeople, "eggmen" and people selling any number of items at the traffic lights, - including a TV aerial. We had to decline. The trip to Selous Safari Camp could not have been more different. As we landed we were greeted by a welcome party of 4 giraffes in the water's edge. A jeep picked us up to take us to camp.

On arrival, over a glass of fresh lime juice, Sandar explained who our Butler would be (Issa) and who our main Guide was (Bruno). Bruno told us that we would be going out for a game drive in half an hour. How exciting. Just enough time to find our stunning tent (number 13 of 13) and quickly take it all in before setting off back to "reception" to meet the others. Our partner couple for the duration of our stay are Ailsa and Justin - also on honeymoon (as are many guests here - it is July after all). The four of us, and Bruno, occupied the huge 8 seater jeep with high seats and fully open all the way round. This truly is the stuff of dreams... within minutes of leaving camp we'd seen Giraffe. Then Impala. Elephants. Warthog. Squirrels. Monkeys. Crocodile. Hippos. Loads of birds. Absolutely amazing. We stopped at the lakeside for sundowners (a tin of beer from Bruno's cool box) and were treated to a visit from a young bull elephant coming down for a drink. Bruno made us get back into the jeep quickly and quietly. We watched the elephant circling us for a good 10 minutes before he got bored and roamed off -with Bruno educating us about the family life of elephant and how the teenage males get kicked out of herd and spend years along before partnering up.

Dinner that evening was preceded by chef Peter coming out to announce his menu. This turned out to be a daily and very cute ritual. He was such a nice guy. Tonight, he announced Chilled Fried Banana with Chilli Sauce, Beef with Green Pepper Sauce/Corn/local creamed Spinach, followed by a dessert of Chocolate Mousse with Strawberries and coffee. We ordered wine with dinner. After dinner, everybody went straight to bed - this was at about 10.15pm. An askari (armed guard) walks you back to your tent, as the camp/park is not fenced at all, and any kind of animal could be around.

We'd left lights on in our room - resulting in the bed being covered by dead and half dead insects. We cleared those up and got into bed, exhausted. The sounds of the bush were all around us. We didn't know what most of the noises were - but there were plenty! Birds and Hippo mostly. After such a long journey and exciting start to the Safari, we nodded off quickly.
But soon, there was rustling, and then footsteps outside our tent... what could it be? The footsteps got heavier and nearer to the tent wall (effectively just a mosquito net). Roy woke me up: "That's definitely an elephant" he announced, reassuringly adding "I'm scared". So was I. I lay shivering for the best part of an hour - partly with fear and partly with cold!

Monday 4th July:
Next morning we were woken by the Askari shouting "Hello.... Hello" and leaving us a flask of coffee and some biscuits on the front veranda outside the tent (there is no door for him to knock on!). Thus followed a huge palaver of getting said coffee etc inside the tent. It was pitch dark outside and Roy was still scared from the noises of the night. So he made a mad dash in and out of the tent 4 or 5 times... bringing the flask in, then the coffee cups, then the biscuits...
Only on his last trip did he realise that there was a tray underneath it all and that one trip would have sufficed.
Time for our first "proper" game drive - with a 6am call and a 6.30am start from camp. We were lucky in that Justin and Ailsa wanted to be up and out early, too - we noticed over the week that some guests had a lie in, breakfast in camp and didn't drive out until almost 9. Not for us - we wanted to be the early birds getting all the best animal spots - including some of the nocturnal beasts.
It was dark when we woke and almost fully light as we left our tent at 6.25am. Bruno drove us round looking for animals but to be honest the first hour was fairly quiet. Had the getting up early been for nothing?
Then we started to spot things - everything we'd seen the previous evening, plus: Buffalo, Wildebeest, Baboon, Zebra, Hyena and Kudu. We went round the lake again and then, out of nowhere, came two men and a boat - they pulled up onto the lake shore.... Breakfast! Fabulous. We ate cheese frittata, sausage sandwich, fresh peach juice, papaya and homemade bread and marmalade. All this carried across from camp to our own private picnic spot.
After breakfast, Bruno announced that he was taking us "half an hour out of camp" to look for lions. We didn't see lions, but ended up in a wonderful glade like area full of watering holes with Baboon and Impala. Back to camp just in time for lunch - we'd been out for over 6 hours!

Lunch was a gourmet sit down affair with chilled Carrot and Cumin Soup, Cracked Wheat salad, Fishcakes and Cucumber/Dill/Feta, followed by Fruit Salad.

After lunch we had time for a quick siesta before our second activity of the day - a boat trip. We set off across the lake - just the two of us. Justin and Ailsa had decided to go for another drive, despite Bruno trying to persuade them otherwise (it's a hassle sorting vehicles etc. when guests don't want to go with the suggested activity plan). We went round the edges of the lake very slowly, seeing Crocs, Hippo pods, Birds along the way. It was very hot on the water at such slow speeds. After an hour or so, our driver decided to race us back and forth along the lake, really fast, which was great fun. Then we headed for the far shore. As we approached, we could see a jeep and as we got closer, realised that Justin, Ailsa and Bruno were waiting for us. We climbed out of the boat, and Bruno presented us with a bottle of bubbly and 2 glasses - for our honeymoon. Extra special sundowners tonight then, for more than one reason. As we snacked on cashews, (they'd set out a little table with a cloth and nibbles, bless) the guys told us how they'd spotted lions on their drive! Roy was gutted! "I knew we should have gone on the drive with you - you're lucky" (Ailsa and Justin had seen lions when travelling from the airstrip to camp on their first day).

Bruno got on his radio - he came back and said that the lions were still there (somewhere out near the landing strip). Justin and Ailsa kindly agreed to let us have their jeep (a 2 seater) so that we could go to see them. They would go back to camp in our boat. "Quick" said Bruno "We have to leave NOW or it will be dark before we get there". So, leaving our drinks behind, we raced off toward the spot where the lions had been seen. What an exhilarating experience, racing across the bush at high speed on narrow, windy tracks! We arrived near the airstrip at 6.15pm - sundown is 6.30pm. Bruno radioed to Andrew, another Guide, to check that the lions were still there - yes.
Soon after, I spotted one of them. A beautiful adult lioness, lying relaxed on the ground. She didn't budge. As we approached, Bruno let us watch her for a moment and then we truned a corner to find Andrew's jeep and two more lions - another adult and a cub, both female. Soon, the single adult began calling to the other, and right in front of us, in the fading light of day, the adult got up and walked past our jeep. Stopping for a pee, she called the cub again and the cub got up and left. All three of them were now in the same spot. But as it was now almost dark, we left them along and headed back for camp, scaring some giraffes in the road en route. What a fantastic end to the day. We later found out that everyone in camp had seen the lions - we'd have been so annoyed to be the only two who hadn't!

Dinner was good - they are so imaginative with the food available. It is shipped in (frozen and tinned stuff) once a month and a local village grows vegetables for them. But apparently, supplies can be unpredictable! Tonight we ate Bruschetta, Sweet & Sour Pork, Baked Potato, Carrots, Sesame and Green beans. Followed by Apple Crumble. Roy was pleased, his favourite pud! We ate in tables of two - they try to mix and match the dining arrangements here each night, so sometimes you're alone, and other times with your "activity" partners.
A very early night for us - 9.30-ish when we left the dining area, but we needed the rest as we'd decided on another early start (6am "hello" call) for a bush walk.

The animals weren't quite as worrying tonight now that we'd become accustomed to them (aided by a large whisky after dinner).

Tuesday 5th July:
We met Andrea at 6.30am to start our 3 hour bush walk. He had an African armed guard with him and we were instructed to walk in single file, silently at all times. We walk in a sort of relay system so that every 15 minutes or so, the lead walker drops to the back of the line and somebody new gets chance to be at the front (well, behind the gunman!).
Apparently it is your listening skills that will alert you to danger more than anything else.
If you know what you're listening for of course...

Every 10 minutes or so we'd stop for some info on the flora, fauna and wildlife of the Selous Bush. We saw giraffe and impala from the ground but luckily no elephants!
Andrew was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the Bush. After 2 and a half hours walking and examining animal tracks and poo - highlights including Andrew putting a giraffe turd in his mouth.

We met up with Issa on the lakeside for breakfast. Andrew told us he'd been waiting for 5 or 6 years to come to the Selous. Why? We wanted to know. "Because its the Selous" he explained. Apparently in the game industry, Selous is the most prestigious park to work in, due to it's really wild and natural environment.

After the veg frittata, sausage and fruit/bread/marmalade feast, we were told that we'd be going back to camp in the boat. Expecting to be whizzed rapidly across the lake, what a surprise when they took us on a hour long tour off the lake and onto the Rufiju River itself. We saw some beautiful birds and the usual assortment of crocs and hippos. We arrived back at camp at 10.30am - early for us - and so had the luxury of lazing around until lunch and up to our 4pm Game Drive that afternoon. I slept both before and after lunch! But just sitting on the veranda at the back of the tent, there was too much happening - woodpeckers pecking, lovely bluebirds flying about and the odd impala racing up and down - to sit and read.

Lunch was Mango and Smoked Fish salad, Mushroom Quiche with Bean Salad, Tomato and Mozzarella, and Papaya Mousse.

After lunch I was having another sleep when I was woken by the sounds of birds outside. It was very hot and they were really going for it. All hot and bothered, I decided to take a shower to cool down. Bruno came to visit us to tell us that the afternoon drive would be at 4pm (slightly later than normal) because he was on "airport duty". The four of us set out, as ever mercilessly teasing Bruno about wanting to see a leopard (or le-o-pard as he called it). Once again, we saw no leopard. But we did see Waterbuck, which we hadn't seen before. Every time we had a new "spot" it was very exciting.

Bruno was also good at spotting birds, even the well hidden and well camoflauged ones like the Marsh Eagle. Tonight we also caught a fleeting glance of a Mongoose which was rare, and we hadn't seen one before. Sundowners tonight was Kili (beer) on the lakeside listening to hippo and watching storks and other waders and skimmers. It was a nice sunset (again). We also saw giraffe "necking" - like nuzzling each other - which made a nice change from seeing them staring at us and then running away.

Back to camp for another shower under the stars (or was it watching the sunset on the lake, I forget?). It wasn't the usual set up for Dinner - drinks in the lovely seating area and then dinner itself. Instead, we had been invited by Sandra and Manie to the "opening party" of the other camp - which had been having some work done. In future, rather than one camp of 13 tents, 9 tents will make up the Selous Safari Camp, and 4 tents (the 4 including ours) will make up "Private Selous". We were fortunate to have had a sneak preview of how Private Selous (more exclusive and expensive) will operate. What a bargain for us!

The camp was completely full, so the main bar, which we'd never visited before, had a crowded feel to it. If you can call 30 people a crowd, that is. We had champagne and chatted to Jess and Richard, another honeymoon couple who had gone to Selous via Ras Nungwi. We shared a table with Ailsa and Justin. The party atmosphere was nice and they'd printed special menus for us.

It was a late night - partly because of the party, and partly because it was a long walk in the dark bush from Tent 1 back to Tent 13!

Our Askari got us home safe. The stars here are incredible - Angela showed us the Southern Star on the way to dinner and explained how you use it to find South. Another wonderful day over. Amongst the sounds this evening, was the noise of somebody or something peeing loudly outside our tent. Askari or Animal? I'll never know.

Wednesday 6th July:

"Hello." We'd arranged another 6am call. By 6.30am we were in the jeep and ready to go - having asked Bruno to take us out on a long drive and take a packed breakfast with us. Little did we know when we set off how exciting a morning this was going to be. Within moments of leaving the camp we'd seen a lone Hyena - he stopped and posed at the side of the road for us. Apparently it is rare to see them as they are nocturnal. It finally paid off to be the early ones out of camp. Soon after we had a Buffalo crossing the road in front of us and a couple of Warthogs running around. Then, on the lake side, we watched a hippo sniffing about waiting to go back into the water. As with most animals, they are territorial and do a poo on the lake side when they come out of the water. This lets them know where to go back in. Simple!

Another hippo nearby was grunting loudly to signal his disapproval of our guy moving into the wrong space. Eventually he got back in. We moved on.

Bruno seemed to take us much further than usual, and he had us checking trees for le-o-pard all the time. We saw the usual assortment of giraffe and impala - including two bucks fighting - and eventually stopped on quite a high area for cheese and cucumber sandwiches. Bless Bruno - the Camp doesn't usually do Take Out for breakfast so he'd got up extra early and raided the fridge. Unfortunately he'd made the sandwiches right after putting on his aftershave. Or so it seemed as I ate cheese, cucumber and eau do cologne scented breakfast!!.

As we munched, enjoying the wonderful view of open land and not a soul in sight, the radio crackled. "Bruno, Bruno". It was Issa, wanting to know what time we'd be back for breakfast! We declined! Later, Issa.

In this area we looked at and learned all about termite mounds. Then back in the jeep for more le-o-pard hunting. We passed a few cars coming the other way - unusual as we rarely saw any other vehicles out on a drive. They weren't Selous cars, but people down from Dar who'd been fly camping. Bruno was excited after speaking to the driver. "They've seen wild dogs and lion" he told us. All of a sudden, he put his foot down - "I don't want to miss the wild dogs" he explained.

Another high speed race through the bush. We drove for quite a while (outside camp boundaries, I suspect) and then, suddenly, there they were. A pack of 10 African Hunting Dogs (also known as Painter dogs). Bruno was so thrilled to see them. He said he's seen them twice since being in Selous.

Tell people that you've seen wild dogs" he urged us "They won't believe you. This is the number one spot in Africa - never mind le-o-pard." These dogs are so highly mobile that they're really hard to find. Today we were lucky to see a pack of 10, they all had a little walk about after we approached but then settled in under a tree to sleep. Bruno said they'd eaten.

Once again, Bruno had come up trumps. On our way back we met up with Ludwig's jeep - also on the way to find the dogs as Bruno had radio-ed round to the rest of camp about our spot. The two drivers stopped to discuss location and pored over the map together for a while. Eventually they decided that Ludwig would take us back to camp and that Bruno would take his jeep and group out to the dogs.

Ludwig asked us what we wanted to see next. "Lions" was the unanimous reply, as the three lions we'd seen had been spotted again in the area, quite close to camp. Within an hour we'd found them. They were lying in the shade of trees, watching zebra, impala and giraffe on the plain before them. "They'll hunt today" Ludwig explained. They didn't move much as we sat there, but Ludwig said that one of them wasn't too pleased at him talking and disturbing them stalking, so we set off back to camp.

After lunch of Lasagne, pineapple with yogurt and nuts, we went back to our tent. Bruno still wasn't back from taking his second group out to see the dogs but we'd agreed between us that we wanted to do another drive later on. We chilled on the veranda - watching what was going on on the lake etc. Bruno came to see us at about 4 and said that we couldn't go for a drive as all the jeeps were out. Instead, he offered us a boating and fishing trip with the guy who took Prince Charles, Harry & William out in the '90's when they visited Selous. Cool!

Ailsa wasn't too sure about giong - she really wasn't happy on water with hippos around. In the end she came with us and we pootled around on the lake for 30 minutes or so. At one point we rounded a corner to see a huge lone elephant drinking on the bank. He started at us and then got a bit edgy, stamping his leg and looking like he would spray us with water. As we backed away slowly he charged off back into the bush and luckily not into the water at us!

The others saw a Monitor Lizard but I missed it. We saw lots of crocs and birds again. When we got out on to the bank to fish, there was a HUGE croc about 30 feet away, but he was "no problem" according to our Guide. After an hour fishing, Justin was the first to manage a catch - a small catfish. And that was it for the day! Not very impressive, but we had seen a baby hippo going back into the water with mum. And we boated back to camp watching the most incredible sunset.

In fact, the sun had not fully set when we docked - the first time we'd been back before dark - so we enjoyed G&Ts in the bar.

For dinner, Angela had set up the table by the boma (camp fire). Now that we were in Private Selous and the other 9 tents were eating in the main dining area, there were only 8 of us left in camp. We had drinks round the campfire - Ailsa and Justin were missing, we found out later they'd had a private dinner on their veranda.

Tonight, Peter pulled out all the stops and fed us Battered Prawns, Garlic Steak in Pepper Sauce, Dauphinoise potato, peas and mashed Pumpkin. Pudding was Creme Caramel. All the bread here is home made and yummy!

We were in bed quite early - 10.15pm and it was our last night in the bush. At that point, I didn't realise how much I'd miss it. The usual assortment of hyena calls and hippo visits broke our sleep.

Thursday 7th July:

For our last morning we'd arranged - surprise! - a 6.30am game drive. Issa had offered to arrange hot water for our return so that we could shower before leaving. If you want to shower any other time than around 6-7pm, you have to give them 30 minutes notice, as the water for showering is heated by building a fire under your water tank at the side of the tent.

Bruno offered two choices - a drive to Mtemere Gate to see how the administration of the park worked, or a bush game drive. We opted for the game drive - when you know that lions are about and you still haven't seen a le-o-pard, you want to keep hunting. We tried some reverse psychology, saying that we didn't want to see le-o-pards today. We saw pretty much everything else - including our first sighting of Eland, a beautiful and very shy antelope. Bruno says they're tasty!

On the way back to camp we saw the lions - resting with full bellies under a tree. One of them still had a keen eye on the impala grazing nearby. I think our presence alerted the impala that lions were there as they soon got up and left, making the snorting warning noise that they do. We drove on after a few minutes longer with the lions. We'd also seen giraffe, zebra, hyena - a pack of 4 - wildebeest, Lilac Crested roller birds, buffalo, warthog, baboons, an eagle, and tiny baby elly and hippos up on land. The perfect end to it all really.

We arrived back in camp at 10.30am for breakfast. We'd never eaten breakfast in camp before and were amazed at the selection! Grapefruit, muesli, honey, yoghurt, sausage, egg, toast, tomato and hash brown.... just a small breakfast then! No sooner had we finished and Issa told us he would arrange a romantic private lunch on our veranda. We went back to the tent, showered and packed and wandered down to wave off Justin and Ailsa, who were leaving earlier than we were.

Back again to our tent, where Issa had surreptitiously set up a table and chairs on the veranda. We asked him for small portions - well it was only a couple of hours since breakfast. he brought Aubergine Fritters with sweet chilli sauce, Fish, Coleslaw and Pasta with tomato sauce. Passion fruit pot. We passed on coffee!

As we ate, a single - tusked elephant wandered past our veranda, minding his own business! Wonderful... you couldn't wish for a more idyllic farewell feast.

We went to pay our bills and tip our wonderful guide and butler, then spent our last hour exploring "old camp" and looking at photo albums and pictures of Prince Charles and his boys on a visit to Selous. I noticed that they got safari chairs for their fishing trip - us commoners had to stand.

Then it was time to say goodbye. Angela told me to always remember them - as if I could forget. And to "remember everything you've seen, heard, smelt and tasted here". I choked up at this stage and quickly got into the jeep. Our farewell committee waved us off and we were on our way to the airstrip at Siwandu Lake. We saw a few animals on the way of course, but not that elusive le-o-pard.

http://www.selous.com/