Anyway, this entry is about Tanzania, currently the most impressive African nation I have visited—the Cadillac of gummy worms if African countries could be compared to gummy worms. Any verbal description is really not going to do this place justice. The top two places that have had a lasting impression on me are Ngorongoro Crater and Stonetown in Zanzibar. People explained to me that I would see lions and all sorts of animals, but sometimes you see them when you least expect it. So, we’re driving down into the crater, which is essentially a natural zoo, just after one of my fellow travellers stepped out of the car for a quick pit-stop.
I’m avidly taking pictures of the amazing scenery with my head stuck out of the open car window. So, this is literally, 45 seconds after Julian, the aforementioned fellow traveller, got back into the car (our guide said, ‘sure no problem, it’s safe to get out here to pee’). Our guide, still drunk from his partying the night before, stared ahead of him trying hard to keep his eyes open—that’s a whole other story for another time. Back to the picture taking: I’m leaning out of the window to wait for the bushes to reveal a clear view of the crater floor. Then, all of a sudden one of the bushes, about a metre away from my face, turned out to be a lioness sitting upright and staring straight at me. While I’m panicking to decide between which actions to take (take a picture, roll up the window asap, or scream out ‘there is a lion!’, hold still and avoid eye contact, duck my head, etc.), I managed to blurt out “oh shit”. My friend turned around and asked me “oh, did you drop something?” You know in those 50s horror films where you always have these people see King Kong or Frankenstein and are unable to actually say “oh, I think it’s time to run, the monster is coming” to the person standing with their back to the creature. I mean, it’s ridiculous! I was unable to say “oh, there is a lion, maybe we should stop and I should roll up the window”. So, in the end we passed the lioness, stopped the car after I finally regained coherence 5 metres down the road and saw a second lion. This one was not nearly as fun because he was asleep and we only saw a ball of lion mane stuck in the middle of the tall grasses. In retrospect, I feel really special. 
The lioness and I had our own moment that was not captured on film nor shared with anyone else.
Oh, yeah, and then there were those wildebeests on the Serengeti plains. After you see about, say 200,000 of them, you definitely get the point about the whole migration thing. Talk about pack animals! The interesting thing, though, was that the wildebeests seemed to be boycotting Serengeti national park. Before we reached the official gates of Serengeti national park, the plains were covered with wildebeests. I mean, literally, wildebeests as far as the eye could see.
Well, wildebeests and friends, I should say. Zebras and antelopes seem to want part of the migration action. Ok, so wildebeests, zebras, and antelopes, but mostly wildebeests as far as the eye could see—an ocean of them. Then we reached the gate and, thereafter, the plains were completely empty.Ok, I think we're good. A full pack of organic gummy worms eaten in one sitting: no problem!
