Finally I have seen Kilimanjaro, just a glimpse of the whole mountain around 0600 in the morning. Soon afterwards, the clouds roll in for the day. Even so it dosn't look much like the pictures as so much of the snow cover has gone.  I had pleasant trip down to Dar es Salam, in a modern coach filled with a large group of very smartly dressed convent girls. It made me realize how slowly the overland truck went, as the buses really move.

I spent a day in and around Dar, sorting out moving on, unfortunately I can't take the train to the south of the country as its fully booked, so it's going to be a 900km bus journey. The train station was worth seeing though, a massive Soviet style concrete palace of a place, which was almost completely deserted. Not surprising as only three trains a week run on the line.

I am now in Nungwi, a village like resort at the north of Zanzibar island where I stayed a month ago at the beginning of my trip. The bungalow resort I stayed in then burnt down two weeks ago, the walls of the buildings remain but the thatched rooves burnt very well and spread, burning down part of the neighbouring resort and a dive shop. An electrical fault said the owners, who were sitting in their office, now just a pile of rubble; others say they were being too successful so arson is more likely. This is Africa.

Still the beach is still white, the sea turqoise and warm and the sky blue, what more do you want?

After arrival in Tanzania, I joined up with my truck group and we went together over to Zanzibar. I spent a day wandering around Stonetown, which in has not changed in anyway from when I was here four years ago; but such a timeless place would probably be very difficult to change anyway. We then went up to the beach resort of Nungwi, and spent a couple of days chilling out. It really is one of the nicest beaches I know anywhere, golden sand and clear, warm turquoise water to swim in. On the last evening we took a boat along the coast to a full moon party, which was a full on night out.

Back on the mainland, I started my journey with the group in earnest with a ten hour truck ride from Dar es Salaam to Arusha in the north of Tanzania. Rolling empty African countryside most of the way, but with so far to go we didn't even stop for lunch.  As we got to Mosi, we got a glimpse of Kilimanjaro through the cloud, and it was impressive, one of life's ambitions ticked in the box.

Today we are setting off on the highlight of our journey, heading into the Ngorongoro crater and the Sererigeti national park. Our amenable American tour leader Mat, gave us a talk on the do's and don'ts in the park, as we will be camping in the park itself with the animals all around us. There is an elaborate drill for leaving your tent to go to the loo at night, can you hear anything, do you see eyes watching you; all very important if you don't want to be a snack for a group of hyenas or a lion.

Unfortunately, the weather is unseasonably cool with some rain so we don't know what kind of views we will have. Heres hoping it will be spectacular.

When I go travelling, at least outside Europe I tend to wear a cheap Casio watch; if it's lost or stolen it doesn't matter, you're only $20 down and you can easily replace it. Before starting a long journey like the one I've just completed from my home in St Albans to Dar es Salaam, I use the stopwatch function to record just how long the journey took. With stopovers and time zone changes it's often not easy to work how many hours have gone by, but the watch will record it to the second. So I know that the journey from my front door to the Kipepeo Beach Camp near Dar took 23hrs 12mins and some change. This included a couple of hours stop over at Dubai Airport (where I saw my first Super Jumbo on a stand), going forward a couple of time zones, then back one. So I was awake and functioning for 37 hours,sustained only by a couple of cat/power naps.

My reward at the end of my journey was to be able to walk down to the beach and swim in the warm Indian Ocean, just as the sun was going down. Bliss.

Writing from Zanzibar,

Today Louise and I drove down to Kent to visit Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill. I’d first heard about it in Goa, when I read the biography of Churchill by Roy Jenkins; which for some reason is on sale in most English bookshops in India.An interesting fact was that even though Churchill was a leader of the free world, and one of the saviours of Western civilisation; at the end of the war in 1945, he was bankrupt, and it looked like Chartwell would have to be sold. A group of friends got together to buy the house for the nation, on the understanding that Churchill and his wife could continue to live in it for as long as they lived. So now it’s managed by the National Trust.