Day 257 Tanzania 17/07/2011, Meserani Snake Park. Too many beers = Another day of rest!

I blame Thiemo and Thiemo's wife Debs blames me. Either way we had quite a lot of beers, so this mornings moving on didn't happen! Fortunately the hangovers weren't too brutal so we got up and joined a group of American teenagers, who are on summer camp, on their trip to a Masai village with Ali their English guide. The kids were hilarious, especially when they got dressed up in Masai outfits for the walk to the village.

To show that Debs was suffering from hangover induced vagueness, she managed to not bring any water with her on the walk. We had my bottle but it wasn't really enough, especially when you are dehydrated from the night before.

The village trip turned out to be great with some Masai men doing a war dance (?) for the kids, which they joined in with.

The local kids performed some songs that they had learned and the American kids then taught them a sort of line dancing R&B song, the Cuban shuffle. It has been worth staying the extra day just for the experience.

I have sworn to a three beer limit tonight, so we are definitely moving on tomorrow!

Day 256 Tanzania 16/07/2011, Meserani Snake Park. Some route planning, chatting and generally doing as little as possible.

Last nights few beers turned into slightly more than planned. We had a interesting chat with Fiona and Thiemo, two overland truck leaders. From them we got some useful information about our route ahead and heard some interesting stories about their times in Africa.

Any likelihood of us moving on today ended after last nights beers. Instead we got the maps out and had a good look at some potential stopping points along the road to Malawi. Thanks to Thiemo we have a bit more information about camp-sites, so we should be alright for at least a few days. It seems that the road we are taking, albeit a main one, is seldom used so traffic won't be a problem.

Lunch in the bar was followed by some reading and then people watching in the camp-site. There has been a fairly constant flow of overland trucks in and out of here since we arrived. Our stay has been entertaining, but we will be quite glad to move on tomorrow where it will hopefully be quieter. A large group of American teenagers camped right close to us, doesn't bode well for a good nights sleep.

If you happen to stay at Meserani Snake Park, ask to see the 'stupid book' at the bar. It is jam-packed with ridiculous questions asked by overland truck passengers and bar patrons.

Day 255 Tanzania 15/7/2011, Sakina camp-site, Arusha – Meserani Snake Park. 17.66miles/27.99km, 1hr23minutes, Av 12.6mph.

Rain! Unbelievable, we have had dry but cold mornings ever since we left Nairobi and it chooses today to rain. Fortunately knowing the way the weather seems to work around Arusha, it will brighten up later on. In fact after saying goodbye to Tom and Fiona and wishing them well on their Safari, the rain had all but stopped. Before we left we had to say goodbye to Robert, who has really made our stay at Sakina camp-site. Without him, recommending the site over any other would be difficult, but he has kept us well entertained during our stay.

Leaving the camp-site we took a sneaky ride up the middle of the currently unfinished road. The detour is up a reasonably steep hill along a very bumpy dirt track which we wanted to avoid if at all possible. After a short stop at the supermarket to stock up on water we made our way through the Arusha traffic. Getting out of the city was pretty easy and once again the other road users were all surprisingly courteous. Before too long we had left the city behind and quickly made the 27km journey to our next camping spot.

The Snake park is a curious camping area. It is by far the busiest place we have camped, with several overland trucks parked in the site. It seems to have a decent bar and the attached small snake and reptile zoo is interesting if a little dilapidated.

It would be remiss of me to not mention a completely unsubstantiated factoid that we heard while sitting in the bar. Thanks once again to our young American friends, a squirrel, any squirrel, is faster than Usain Bolt! We have no way of telling if this is true and over what distance, but he seemed jolly adamant. Plus it was all we could do not to spray our beers across the bar!

Tonight will be spent having a few beers and we will make the decision as to whether we are moving on again in the morning.

On a more annoying note, the zip that was fixed on our tent has failed once again. A strong email will be winging its way to Hilleberg shortly.