First, news on my book.

I picked up the first 100 this afternoon.  They look great!  Eight went to Katoke Teacher Training College for the library and the Mathematics Tutors, the rest came home with me.

I was proudly admiring my great work and (Oh no, minor swearing) discovered a mistake – entirely mine – in one of the puzzles.  Tomorrow Steve and I will fix 92 books, just a minor change of a 1 to an 11 and a 34 to a 44, using correction fluid and a black biro.  Sheila, Librarian at Katoke, will fix the other eight!  When I pick up the remaining 900 I will organise a working bee among my friends here to fix them all too.

I have written a new book – it only took a morning and is illustrated in colour!  I hope it won’t have any errors.

It is drawn on the back of old calendar pages – I hope it will give teachers some ideas of their own on counting books that they and the children can make together.

Second, our do-it-yourself safari to Serengeti.

It was a loooong drive from Bukoba to Speke Bay around the southern end of Lake Victoria – 10 hours!  It was worth it though as we saw new countryside and villages with customs different to what we are used to.  We saw donkey carts for the first time in Tanzania, and many more girls on bicycles (Isabelles) than we are used to seeing.  The bikes are mostly men’s bikes with a bar and the women are mostly wearing ankle length skirts so it is very awkward.

Speke Bay Lodge was as enjoyable as the first time around and we saw many familiar faces.  We hope to visit again before we head home in July.

Gonolek - Some birds don't make it easy!

Serengeti NP had all the animals we wanted to see – pictures attached – but none of the infrastructure we’d expected.  The western corridor anyway is totally undeveloped – it is nothing like Kruger NP!  The map we bought was useless to the point of being dangerous if you expected to use it to know where you were.  The ‘highlight’ was watching around a dozen 3 – 4 metre crocodiles rip apart a wildebeest who had ventured down to their pool for a drink.  The brutality and power of the crocodiles rolling was amazing to us though the hippo who was sharing the quite small pool looked like he’d seen it all before!

Dinner time

I love zebras too!

The baby zebras are quite brown.

Tanzanian Red-billed Hornbill

Many antelope

This Secretarybird was not cooperating

They are still tall when sitting

Spotted Hyena

Brutal thorns

And Around Mwanza

Cattle & goats

Mwanza Rocks

The next bus had 'Tehran' on the back!

No trains to worry about!

Traffic chaos 

Peaceful village