A close look at the local wildlife

MUSOMA, Tanzania (CNN) -- Lizzie Cameron is in Musoma, Tanzania working with the Musoma Engineering Project.

The Musoma Engineering Project is the only charity of its kind in the region and aims to provide teaching and support for local disabled children and teenagers.

With the project Lizzie will be helping the teachers teach skills like woodworking, leatherwork and dressmaking. Follow her experiences in her blogs and video diaries.

January 23, 2008
I'm back to work now after the Christmas break. The holiday was slightly extended for me as I had a friend over from Scotland and we decided to do a bit of traveling and see some of Tanzania's famous landmarks.

We took a bus from Musoma over to a place called Pangani, which is on the East coast of Tanzania, stopping off in Arusha and Tanga. The roads were in pretty bad condition and the journey was long, but the views through the Serengeti and Ngorongoro made it all worthwhile.

We passed lots of buffalo, zebra, some hippo and lions, but due to the speed of the bus, couldn't get a proper look so decided while in Arusha to do a safari of Arusha National Park.

Part of the safari was on foot, which was great as that gave us the chance to get really close to the animals (thankfully we were escorted by an armed ranger). Being surrounded by Mount Meru, Mount Kiliminjaro and hoards of wild African animals has to be one of the best settings in the world.

The coastline along the east of Tanzania would give it a run for its money, though. It is just stretch upon stretch of idyllic beaches overlooking the Indian Ocean. The area of Pangani is a lot less touristy than Zanzibar so you pretty much have the beach to yourself.

All relaxed and replenished, we boarded a bus back to Musoma. There were only two seats free right at the back of the bus (crammed between a lot of people and a lot of bags), but my friend had a plane to catch so we had no choice but to board. With every pothole we hit we were propelled into the air, and at one point the bus hit a ditch and almost toppled over so everyone started jumping out of the windows.

I was glad to arrive back in Musoma in one piece. E-mail to a friend