Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya

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Malawi
We took the overnight bus from Livingstone to Lusaka (Zambia). It was cramped, had no air-con, and was very smelly. We got there at 3am and had to change at a dodgy bus station for another bus that went to the Zambia/Malawi border. It left hours late, naturally. Then it broke down about 5 minutes into the trip, and we had to wait for the drivers to make a poor attempt to repair it. They finally called for another bus which we all transferred to, and actually left Lusaka at 8am. A great start! Finally arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi at 6pm after a long, frustrating 22 hours of travel.
Had to leave early again the next day, at 6am, for Monkey Bay on yet another slow, smelly bus. Arrived at 1:30pm and had to wait 3 hours for the truck to pick us up to take us to Cape McClear. Would it actually leave then? Of course not. After we all crammed on the back of the truck, along with tons of luggage (these people seem to be moving entire households!), we stopped at the petrol station to examine the tires for 30 minutes. Then we drove around the very small town for another 1.5 hours to pick up more people. I don't understand how they managed to find any space. Probably the most uncomfortable, smelly ride we've taken. We finally arrived in Cape McClear at 6pm, 12 hours after we started. It's so frustrating that it takes so long to go such a short distance. Also, the conditions are horrible - no space and everyone smells so badly it's hard to even explain. I guess I need to get used to travel in Africa.
Stayed at two very nice hostels in Cape MacClear, Geckos and Gaia's. We spent two days enjoying the chairs by the lake, reading mostly. If you walk down the street, you're hassled about buying something or taking boat trips, so that's not very pleasant. We didn't actually dare to go into the water. From our nice comfortable view, we could see people washing clothes & dishes and basically using the lake as their bathroom. Not very inviting to say the least. It is beautiful to look at though.
Took the early bus back to Lilongwe, but we had 7 hours to kill before our next bus left so we spent it at Mufasa Backpackers again, a great hostel and very friendly. It was nice to have a real meal and a shower before we left.
We had to walk about 100m to our bus once we were at the bus station, and during that time someone tried to steal something out of my bag. He had moved quickly & unzipped my bag (which was right in front of me), but I could tell he was up to no good from the moment I saw him, so I was quick to react and turned away from him yelling obscenities at him. Luckily it worked, and he didn't actually get to anything inside my bag.
The bus ride was a nightmare. This was definitely the worst by far. We were crammed onto a smelly (this seems to be a theme for buses in Africa), roach-infested bus with stinky people for 35 hours. Two nights of no sleep and one day of sweating in the heat because there was no air conditioning, just to make everyone smell even worse. To top it off, the constantly crying baby next to me spit his juice up on me. The last 10 hours of the ride or so, I thought I was going to yell and scream at everyone. Both Kai and I felt like we just wanted to get off of the bus and walk the rest of the way...We didn't care that it was hundreds of kilometers away. We thought we'd never make it, but we did indeed finally get to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

Tanzania
Dar Es Salaam
In Dar, we were hungry, tired, grumpy, dehydrated (because they don't make bathroom stops on the buses very often), and fed up with everything, so we paid the 5 extra dollars for the 1st class seats on the boat. :) All that really included was air-conditioning and not having to sit in the regular, disgusting, smelly room where they pile people in on top of each other like animals. It was so nice to have our own space again - definitely worth it.

Zanzibar
We really enjoyed the island. The people were very friendly, nice, and helpful. We haven't come across many people like that so far in Africa so it was a real treat. We also found the best restaurant in Africa so far, Lukmaan. Cheap and delicious rice, curries & naan bread. Finally no more spaghetti! :) The streets in Stone Town are narrow and winding and the houses are very old. It sort of reminded us of Spain or Italy.
It's the rainy season now, but we got very lucky with the weather. Apart from some heavy rains in the mornings, the days were clear and hot....perfect beach weather. One day we went to the nearby Bububu beach, but it wasn't the nicest beach. The next two days we went to the east coast of the island to Jambiani beach. It was gorgeous! Of course, there were annoying children asking for money and people trying to sell you stuff, but for the most part it was quite peaceful. The public transport situation remained the same though....overcrowded, smelly, uncomfortable rides....but there's no other way to get there, so you just have to hold your breath for 2 hours. :)

We took the overnight ferry back to Dar. At least we got the 1st class tickets again for the boat. I was amazed that we actually had enough room to lay down and sleep. From Dar, it was another 10 hours on a bus to Moshi. There we met the guy from our tour agency and prepared for our big trek to Mt Kilimanjaro the next day!

Mt Kilimanjaro
We did the 6 day Machame trek to the top of Mt Kili. The first couple of days were pretty easy. Then on Day 3 we went up to 4600m to help acclimatize to the altitude, and both Kai and I got very sick. Severe headache and nausea. Some ibuprofen and a few hours later, though, and we were feeling much better. Day 4 we reached Barafu Hut and went to sleep early so that we could start the ascent to the summit at midnight. It was hard walking up the mountain in the middle of the night. Very dark and cold. It was also snowing most of the time. We were not feeling well from the altitude sickness again, and there were times when we didn't think we could make it. But after 7 long hours, we finally reached the summit - Uhuru Peak at 5895m! There was a gigantic glacier next to the peak. It was so beautiful - I've never seen anything like it!
Overall, we really enjoyed the hike. It wasn't a hard trek at all, aside from the altitude sickness. It was really beautiful to see the changes in vegetation, from the rainforests at the bottom of the mountain to bare land with only rocks at the top.

Back in Moshi, we were very grateful for a hot shower and a comfortable bed to sleep on again. The next day we went to Arusha, where our safari would start from.

Serengeti Safari
Our safari was for 4 days, going to the Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, and Lake Manyara National Park.
We saw so many animals every day! It was unbelievable! We got to see lions, gazelles, zebras, wildebeests, buffalo, flamingos, elephants, warthogs, black rhino, white rhino, hippos, hyenas, giraffes, dik diks, impalas, leopards, baboons, and monkeys.
We came across a pride of 23 lions at a waterhole and were able to drive up very, very close to them! We also got to see lions lying in the trees, and we even spotted 3 leopards which is very lucky and very hard to do! It was also the time for the wildebeest migration. It is an amazing thing to see! So many wildebeest running across the plains of the Serengeti. Thousands of them! During our sunrise game drive in the Serengeti, we saw a few lions eating a buffalo they had killed earlier. A bit gruesome but interesting. :)
At our campsite in the Serengeti, we had to cook and eat in a large caged enclosure so that the animals wouldn't come for our food. That night, we could hear lions roaring close to our camp. They didn't come too close thankfully, but the sound was still a bit scary.

After the safari, we prepared ourselves for our last long bus ride in Africa, from Arusha to Nairobi. It took 7 hours to go approx. 200 km. It is incredible how they can make such a short journey last so long. It ended up not being as uncomfortable as most of our other rides, but we were still happy to be done with bus travel.

Kenya
Nairobi
Arrived in busy Nairobi and instantly felt unsafe and paranoid of everyone. Kai almost got arrested our first night here, because he wanted to go to the store next door for a cold Fanta. He wasn't carrying his passport with him (because everyone tells us not to carry your valuables while walking in the city), and 2 sketchy policemen (one with a huge gun) stopped him and started to harass him, asking him over and over "Why are you here?'" and "Where's your passport?". They insisted they weren't corrupt, but all they wanted is for Kai to go to a bar with them so he could buy them some Vodka. They wanted to take him to the police station, but luckily he convinced him to let him come back upstairs for his passport and more money since he didn't have enough on him for a bottle of Vodka. Once he came back into the hostel and showed them his passport, we were able to get rid of the vile men with the help of the hostel owner. Assholes. Not a good way to start our visit in Kenya.
We stayed in the hostel for the next two days, only venturing out for food and internet. Nairobi is a scary city, and we were just happy to be leaving. Africa has been a very hard place to travel, and after 6 weeks we're looking forward to the next part of our journey.