Lake Manyara wildlife stroll
The drive from Tarangire to Manyara is around 1.5 hours with roads beautifully carved out and geometrically drawn as a straight line. The number of vehicles seen on way could be easily counted on fingers due to off tourist season.
Just before the park entrance are many local shops selling wooden animals and handicraft items priced exorbitantly. It is also a local marketplace and we picked up some red bananas for instant energy during game drive. The taste of Red banana is not different than the yellow ones apart from just the outer red covering color.
Some facts about the national park:
- It derives its name from a poisonous tree named Manyara used by Maasai tribe to build their houses.
- The park is in an area of 330 sq km where 220 sq km is covered by Lake Manyara.
- It is unique for lion climbing trees and groundwater forest
On our way from Tarangire to manyara we had crossed a Maasai village which had only 1 man named Lingayo with 29 wives and more than 100 children. The government had specially built a school for his family children.
The Manyara national park falls in the great rift valley landscape and one can easily see the rift wall inside the national park limits. The wall seems endless at one side of the park preventing animals to cross over. Our lodge was also on this rift wall overlooking the park providing an amazing panoramic view for the safari below.
This park was different from the open grasslands of Tarangire to wet highlands here with large amount of ground water flowing across the dense jungles in forest. The presence of ground water makes the land in this region fertile for farming. On our way from Tarangire we could see a lot of farms on way of rice, potato, maize, sugarcane and banana closer to Manyara park.
After completing the formalities of documentation at park entrance we started the game drive which was to last about 3 hours. It had started to drizzle a bit and the animals were hiding under shade of trees. It was another aspect of mother nature which we were witnessing of how animals manage with natural shelters.
Our first encounter was with the omnivorous Baboons in large groups. It seemed as if the complete community was traveling from one part of the park to another with a mix of large ones and small kids. We halted and observed the playful activities of young ones to the more guarding responsibilities from older family members. [fact]When the butt of baboon is red in color, it signifies that the animal is ready to mate and start his own family.[/fact]
On our drive through the dense forest formed with tall trees we saw a monitor lizard lying on small dry place. On the trees above it we could see Vervet monkeys observing us. That was the moment when it struck that we were guests in their territory. I might have gone there to see them in their natural habitat, but they were equally curious to see an advanced version of their species visiting them for pleasure and photographic instincts.
Their eye contact was the striking moment when I was just struck with absolute reality.
We were anxiously watching out for a glimpse of lion climbing trees throughout the drive on all the trees. The park is not completely dense forests as there are large open grassland areas as well. As we were driving further, the forest cover was becoming thinner and our hopes of witnessing the lion were dimming.
On way we saw a pair of wild African elephants. Before we could get ready to capture them digitally, they vanished inside bushes. A little further away we saw a small pond where Painted Storks were engaged in their activities. There was a lot of wildlife activity around the pond region which is generally the case in any natural area. Two wild buffaloes were sitting in their poster position on ground chewing their swallowed food. Amongst the water birds we could see some pelicans and ducks around the water body.
A little closer look into the water we could see humps at different places and realized that they were hippopotamus. A very large lazy animal enjoying water and also dirtying the water with it’s poo. [fact]The hippopotamus is a large fleshy animal and accounts for the maximum human deaths in African continent[/fact]. In contrast to its size and bulk, it can run swiftly leading to dangerous encounters. The canines it shows during a yawn are dangerously sharp to rip apart even Nile crocodiles.
We then reached the open grasslands where wildlife was present in abundance and that was the first realization of how wildlife co-exists in nature. At one side was a giraffe family strolling in the open grasslands biting on acacia trees. At another side was a herd of warthogs feeding on the fresh green grass after a burst of rainfall. The gazelle and antelopes were grazing in another place of the plains. There were individual wild buffaloes spotted at different places. The zebra herd was also seen in smaller numbers at different places. Zebras and wildbeast are generally present at same places as they form the greatest migration on planet earth. It was all herbivore animals visual treat for us at Manyara national park.
It was already dark and the park rules do not allow one to be on game drives beyond the permitted limits. Otherwise the touring company and guide can lose their permits for life. We then were driven direct to our lodge which was extremely beautiful and luxurious. I had never in the world expected such offering in the middle of a jungle. It was a long day with 2 national park visits and game drives in Tarangire and Manyara parks. The next day was expected to be an even longer drive direct to Serengeti for action packed.
Before retiring to rooms we spent some time capturing long exposure shots of the clear blue star lit sky.
Swahili tutorial
- Dala dala: Local shared minibus transport
- Pole Pole: Slowly slowly
- Madafu: Coconut
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