Lake Manyara National park
“The cleavage, known as the Great Rift Valley, can be identified from space as the most distinctive feature of the African continent. The seam of this cleavage has developed a series of fascinating and beautiful lakes. One of these lakes is called Manyara. Lake Manyara is also a national park. Manyara is a fantastic big game park. The variety of habitats parallels its exceptional scenery.
Every imaginable East African animal is found here in abundance. There are great herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and several varieties of gazelle. Mahogany, sausage tree and croton are alive with blue monkeys and vervet monkeys. Some of the most amazingly large pods of hippos congregate at the rivers emerging into the lake, and the birdlife is plentiful. Lake Manyara used to be known for its "tree-climbing" lions however they have all disappeared due to humans.”
By the morning of this third day we were all pretty Safari’d out.
Every imaginable East African animal is found here in abundance. There are great herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and several varieties of gazelle. Mahogany, sausage tree and croton are alive with blue monkeys and vervet monkeys. Some of the most amazingly large pods of hippos congregate at the rivers emerging into the lake, and the birdlife is plentiful. Lake Manyara used to be known for its "tree-climbing" lions however they have all disappeared due to humans.”
By the morning of this third day we were all pretty Safari’d out.
First sighting was the family of Giraffes. This included several baby giraffes. We ended up in between the entire family and this stressed them out. One mother and baby got separated. It was interesting watching them figure out how to get back together with the herd without getting to close to us. I have this on video. It was amazing to see these animals up close and being able to get an appreciation for their height.
We ventured to a Hippo pool/pond. Man these guys are LAZY!! They sit in the water all day and only really move at night to graze. So I have a couple of pics when one adjusted his position as this was the only good view of them. All the other views are only of their back poking out of the water.
We ended up in the middle of a flock/herd/troop/family of baboons. It was fun watching the interaction of the various members and especially the babies as they played tag with one another. Again I have some good video.
I was getting safari’d out as were the other two. So we started taking fun pictures of the animals. I have a few close ups of the Vervet monkeys… Can you guess what part?
We spotted an interesting animal just by chance. It resembles a miniature dear. It is called a Dik Dik by locals. It was the smallest cutest animal, again check my pics.
As we rounded a corner we came across a herd of elephant. This one included about 10-14 elephants and their babies.
As we left the park we were slowed by a family of Baboons on the road. I was able to get some good close up pics of them grooming.
Our guide lied to us and said that he was taking us to a real Maasai village and not a commercial village. As we drove up to this non-commercial village we noticed a sign on the road on the way in that said “MAASAI VILLAGE Dot Com”. Then we were met by a Maasai on a bike with a Manchester United hat on. He told the driver to take his time as he sped away on his bike. Once at the village we noticed another group of tourists being shuffled out of the site. As they left we were welcomed in, after we paid our $10.00 USD each LOL! The only goal from the village was to sell their stuff. All the ladies had tables laid out and all of the tables had the same things on them. I felt obligated to see every table. I bought 2 necklaces just to make them a little happy. They sang the welcome song and performed the male jumping ritual for us and had us get involved. From there we were invited to sit inside a BOMA (like a Tukul) and were told about the Maasai from the Chiefs son. They have a very interesting history and many of their customs (bad and good) are still practiced today.
I did learn a fair bit about their tribal customs and history. Check out Maasai on Wikipedia to learn more about them. The best part is that we could take their pictures without any problems.
The rest of the day was spent driving the 3.5 hours back to Moshi to my other hotel. From there I was invited out for Guido’s B-Day party. He had invited other people that he met during his two weeks in Moshi. There were about 20 of us that arrived at this little restaurant called “El Rancho”. The food was Indian, not Mexican as I would have thought! The food was awesome and the beer was cold. Most of the 20 were volunteers working in Tanzania and Kenya. Some were medical and others were students. I ended up spending most of my time speaking with a Medical student who has taken a year off 3rd year university to volunteer in a labour and delivery ward of a local hospital. She is from Germany. I also met Nick who is a homeopathic practitioner from Montreal. We left the restaurant at 2:30am…the staff left the restaurant at 1:30am! They just left us as it is an outside restaurant. There was only one problem. In Moshi when you want a Taxi you don’t call a company, you call a guy you know. We called 6 taxi’s from the restaurant with no luck.
We headed to Nick’s place to get the numbers of 4 more cab guys. They all failed. I ended up staying at Guido’s guest house. The crappy part was that I had a great new room at my hotel!!
The next day I relaxed and then headed to the airport. I did not realize that I was on a “milk run” from Tanzania to Cairo. I flew the following route: Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) – Nairobi (Kenya) – Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) – Khartoum (Sudan) – Cairo (Egypt). That’s five countries!!
Oh well…. Cairo here I come!
We ventured to a Hippo pool/pond. Man these guys are LAZY!! They sit in the water all day and only really move at night to graze. So I have a couple of pics when one adjusted his position as this was the only good view of them. All the other views are only of their back poking out of the water.
We ended up in the middle of a flock/herd/troop/family of baboons. It was fun watching the interaction of the various members and especially the babies as they played tag with one another. Again I have some good video.
I was getting safari’d out as were the other two. So we started taking fun pictures of the animals. I have a few close ups of the Vervet monkeys… Can you guess what part?
We spotted an interesting animal just by chance. It resembles a miniature dear. It is called a Dik Dik by locals. It was the smallest cutest animal, again check my pics.
As we rounded a corner we came across a herd of elephant. This one included about 10-14 elephants and their babies.
As we left the park we were slowed by a family of Baboons on the road. I was able to get some good close up pics of them grooming.
Just "hanging out" LOL
Our guide lied to us and said that he was taking us to a real Maasai village and not a commercial village. As we drove up to this non-commercial village we noticed a sign on the road on the way in that said “MAASAI VILLAGE Dot Com”. Then we were met by a Maasai on a bike with a Manchester United hat on. He told the driver to take his time as he sped away on his bike. Once at the village we noticed another group of tourists being shuffled out of the site. As they left we were welcomed in, after we paid our $10.00 USD each LOL! The only goal from the village was to sell their stuff. All the ladies had tables laid out and all of the tables had the same things on them. I felt obligated to see every table. I bought 2 necklaces just to make them a little happy. They sang the welcome song and performed the male jumping ritual for us and had us get involved. From there we were invited to sit inside a BOMA (like a Tukul) and were told about the Maasai from the Chiefs son. They have a very interesting history and many of their customs (bad and good) are still practiced today.
I did learn a fair bit about their tribal customs and history. Check out Maasai on Wikipedia to learn more about them. The best part is that we could take their pictures without any problems.
The rest of the day was spent driving the 3.5 hours back to Moshi to my other hotel. From there I was invited out for Guido’s B-Day party. He had invited other people that he met during his two weeks in Moshi. There were about 20 of us that arrived at this little restaurant called “El Rancho”. The food was Indian, not Mexican as I would have thought! The food was awesome and the beer was cold. Most of the 20 were volunteers working in Tanzania and Kenya. Some were medical and others were students. I ended up spending most of my time speaking with a Medical student who has taken a year off 3rd year university to volunteer in a labour and delivery ward of a local hospital. She is from Germany. I also met Nick who is a homeopathic practitioner from Montreal. We left the restaurant at 2:30am…the staff left the restaurant at 1:30am! They just left us as it is an outside restaurant. There was only one problem. In Moshi when you want a Taxi you don’t call a company, you call a guy you know. We called 6 taxi’s from the restaurant with no luck.
We headed to Nick’s place to get the numbers of 4 more cab guys. They all failed. I ended up staying at Guido’s guest house. The crappy part was that I had a great new room at my hotel!!
The next day I relaxed and then headed to the airport. I did not realize that I was on a “milk run” from Tanzania to Cairo. I flew the following route: Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) – Nairobi (Kenya) – Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) – Khartoum (Sudan) – Cairo (Egypt). That’s five countries!!
Oh well…. Cairo here I come!
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