Simkins Family on Safari

Because Daniel's mum and dad are here we decided to do the safari thing. Well really, you can't come all the way here and not say you've seen an elephant!! We decided to go to Ruaha National Park because we haven't been there before. After thinking about the 9 hour drive on a dirt road to get there we decided to take the Cessena 208 and got there in 40 minutes. You can't beat flying for getting places quickly. It just seemed ridiculous that such a long journey by road could be over so quickly. However, even flying over Tanzania it's amazing to see how vast it is. It goes on for ever, huge tracts of dry land, dry river beds and dry lakes, punctuated by dry dusty tracks.

It was probably the best safari we've been on, helped by the fact that we didn't drive ourselves around and the guide knew where he was going. Ruaha is about the size of Belgium, so it's good not to get lost. We saw everything, elephants, giraffe, crocodiles, Zebras, hippos, lions etc.. In fact it was a whole pride of lions. I couldn't believe we were able to get so close without them being bothered. Saying that I was also quite relieved when we drove off!!! (See if you can spot the lions next to Joshua's head in the picture). The kids had a great fun sitting up front with the guide. No one bothers about health and safety so much here. Caleb fell asleep on the guide's lap. Well he's seen it or before, it's his third safari and he's only 2. How spoilt can you be!! The highlight for the kids was playing hide and seek in the safari camp which is very impressive and built around a huge rocky outcrop. Who cares about lions when there's another 5 year old boy to play with!