Our last day was a balloon ride over the Serengeti. We started off at 5:00am with a 1 hour night game drive and saw many of the night animals. We saw 4 lions that morning, African hares, owls, little Dik Diks (tiny antelopes). We arrived at the launch site in time to see a beautiful sunrise. The balloon was being set up and we were loaded by 7:00am. There were 16 passengers plus the pilot who was a wonderful tour guide. For the next hour we floated over the Serengeti, checked out all the animals and just marvelled at the scenery. Some of the time we just cleared the trees and then we would go up to 1,000 feet. It was an amazing trip and a highlight of the whole trip. We have pictures, many, many pictures. We landed softly on the plains and were treated to a champagne breakfast. Our travelling companions were English and we had such a great time trading stories and drinking champagne we wanted to stay forever. Then it was more game drive and back to our wonderful hotel for a swim, a lay about the pool and supper. This roughing it is real hard to take.

The next morning we drove to Ngorogoro Crater and another game drive. This time the animals are closer and do not run away when we drive up. We saw all the animals that we had seen at Serengetti but there are more babies here. We saw elephants and rhinos. At the very end of the day we came across a mother lion feeding two cubs. We watch for a long time and then happend to look behind us and there was a pride of 8 lions just laying in the grass. A papa guarding his group, some females and some young males. We had to divide our time between the pride and the mother feeding. A neat experience (Helen says it was captivating). Then it was off to another lovely lodge on the rim of the crater. A gorgeous view especially from the bar. The next day was an early morning game drive, elephants with babies, cheetas, more lions and all the usual, zebras, gazelles, wildebeast, warthogs and birds. We are getting animalled-out. We were so excited to see our first zebra and giraffe, now it is ho hum, just another zebra. Not quite but almost.

Tomorrow we are heading to Dar es Salem(by bus) and on to Zanzibar for a couple of days.

Miss you all, will post again after Zanzibar.