The mosquitos are unusually fierce here in and around Arusha. Within the last three days, I've accumulated at least twenty mosquito bites. We've been off the bikes for three days, resting in the official half way stop of the TDA. Previously I've commented about how rest days seem to go annoyingly quickly, filled with chores and other menial errands. This time, although we had much more time, about half the group elected to go on safari - I was part of a smaller group of 11 that went on a three day camping safari (although three day is a stretch, it was more like two and a half day). We left at 9am on the first day rest day and returned today on the third rest day at about 3pm.

I'm not going to go into huge detail since it's late and the photos will say far more about the safari better than I can! We visited three separate areas over the three days-
Lake Manyara National Park
The safari here was great - unlike anywhere I've been before. We saw lots of elephants and most of the big game (no lions, rhinos or cheetahs). Vegetation is very dense here so it's harder to spot animals. The area isn't huge.

Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area
Unbelievable views. We camped on the rim of the crater and took a game drive through the crater itself. The park is pretty busy (I can imagine it getting a bit too crowded in high season) but there are plenty of animals to see. In our single game drive we saw:
- Flamingos
- Rhinos
- Hippos
- Elephants
- Giraffes
- Impalas
- Lions
- Hyenas
- Stalks
- Warthogs
- Baboons
- Meercats
- Mongoose
- Zebras
- Wildebeast
- Buffalo
In addition, I tried a new challenge - to rate limit myself to eating a biscuit every twelve minutes. This wasn't as easy as I thought and I had to stop after 18 biscuits because my stomach was uncomfortable. (Eating them in one go is very easy though - today I managed 20 biscuits without a pause.)
We spent most of the afternoon lying down in the shade under a big tree in our campsite. Awesome.

Tarangire National Park
A pretty big park but we didn't have time to explore it fully. Did almost get charged by an elephant and quite a few bites from the tsetse fly.

Overall the safari was excellent fun. The tents were hilariously old school and heavy but you could at least stand up fully in them. We didn't do much besides sitting around and getting bitten by insects so it was a good way to rest. Onwards now for the second half and the remaining 55% of the continent.