Friday 20th June....left our hotel at 7 am this morning...Michael and I finally had a glass of wine last night so we must be feeling better although Michael is still not 100%...our Canadian friends left us today and 2 of them are nurses so they have given us all their medication as they fly home tomorrow....we had a 3 hour drive to the Tanzanian border and then they went back to Nairobi whilst we picked up another vehicle and driver....our vehicle is a little better  but the roads in Tanzania are sealed so far....on our drive from Amboseli Park to the Keyna/Tanzania border we saw lots of elephants and still animals we have never heard of...even another cheetah but he was at a distance...lots of elephants, giraffes, so many animals but Amboseli has a real drought problem...Lake Amboseli had no water in it at all and they have just finished the rainy season....one can see lots of the animals dying in the not too distant future here....the corrugation for the 3 hour drive got worse and worse...you just couldn't hear one another speak so it was good to get on some sealed roads in Tanzania....the Kenya border was chaos, trucks, trucks and more trucks and queues...luckily Joseph stuck with us and did some queue jumping otherwise we would probably still be there and then we couldn't find the Tanzanian side as big road works going on...we had to go into Tanzania and then come back to the border...crazy stuff....big road works before the Keynan border too in that the road was closed so again Joseph had to make his own road...he takes us to these souveneir shops that have a not so bad toilet...these shops are all co-ops but oh boy do the prices differ from shop to shop....we've had a lot of fun bargaining not that we've bought much as still a long road ahead for us but we've had fun with the Canadian shopping as they have bought lots....and so another visa to buy at the Tanzanian border...all quite expensive as all these borders are usually US$50 each....in Tanzania we are into Tanzanian schillings and there are about 1600 to US$1...population here 45 million with 5 million in the capital Dar el salam....petrol US$1.40 per litre and 1.1 million tourists a year...definitely more tourists here than in Keyna and our first impression of Tanzania is that it is a bit tidier and cleaner than Keyna..still shanty houses and shops but not as bad as Keyna....and so we had about 1 1/2 hour drive from the border to Arusha where we stopped for lunch at a gorgeous restaurant set in beautiful grounds and where we met our fellow travellers...11 in total..haven't meet the other 6 travelling in other vehicle but we have an English girl and an older couple from Perth (not sure of his nationality) but we don't think this 7 days will be as enjoyable as the time we had with the Canadians....Tanzania very dry here too and more Masai people...they wear red cloth in the MM and in Amboseli they wear blue cloth and here they seem to wear red, blue and sometimes purple cloth....the road from border to Arusha was so  quiet with hardly any vehicles but from Arusha to our Lodge near Lake Manyara Park which is 392 sq kms and Lake Manyara is 200 sq kms (we go to this park tomorrow)..we are told lots of lions so here's hoping....apparently the lion population has halved in the MM since 2004...they wander into the Masai villages and they kill them even though they are not supposed to....we passed through all the usual villages and markets....nothing like the markets we passed on the road from Lake Ngakuru to Amboseli...there were hundreds of people, produce, all sorts of goods and just utter chaos but so colourful and I guess they were doing business regardless....also more of the trees that the weaver birds have their nests in...absoluteley fascinating and they are everywhere...like round balls of straw hanging on the ends of the branches...hopefully we got a good photo as they  certainly are a very different kind of bird nest...the birds in Keyna are so colourful...and so to our lodge at about 5 pm...having driven across the Masai Steppe and into the Great Rift Valley and then climbed a mountain so that we are looking down into the valley....very fertile in the Great Rift Valley, they grow lots of rice and bananas...an odd combination but that's what we saw...fields of sunflowers on the way today too and the usual corn, sweet potatoes etc....also lots of coffee trees and coffee is their main export....at the moment many by the pool and there is music and dancing but almost dinner time which is always at 7.30 pm so to keep on top of the photos and blog we have to grab the internet where ever we can....we came off the sealed road and another goat track to the lodge but not as bad as in Keyna...we are convinced that they want you to have an African experience getting to your lodge each night!!. And then of course we sleep under our big mosquito nets which they come and prepare over your bed each evening...very claustrophobic but very necessary....we always look forward to hearing from you...M & F