Hippos, 3,000,000 flamingos and banded mongoose

  Lake Manyara, Tanzania
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Scotch eggs and donuts for breakfast! Well they were like scotch eggs but nicer, a hard-boiled egg wrapped in some sort of meat product.

There was some drunk outside my room who kept following me around and knocking on my door, it turns out he was from the tour company - probably celebrating with the money I passed onto his buddies the previous day! The big boss arrived in a taxi and together with the drunk we headed off to where the 4WD was situated. The boss suddenly slips in the following dreaded words to the conversation 'things have changed slightly' and I thought here we go.

He mentioned the Kiwi couple I was meant to be going with was sick and I was going with a different company. It turns out the company was Victoria Travel, the itinerary was the same and there were only 4 people in the vehicle - some trips take 5, but this means there is one person in the middle - I didn't want to be that person. My travel companions were Bill, Jane and Dave. Jane and Dave had a similar story about a Dutch couple they were originally meant to be traveling with.

I may be making a large erroneous conclusion here, but my guess is all the tour companies say they have clients to get others interested. They then all get together the night before and pool their clients!

Jambo Campsite

It was a long drive out to Lake Manyara and after arriving at our campsite and stopping for lunch, it was 2pm before we started that day's safari. It worked out well though as this gave us time for a nice long 4 hour safari - about as much as I could take in one session.

Most of this safari was in the trees. We saw lots of impala, a couple of Buck Bush and baboons by the 100, including one who aggressively jumped onto our 4WD baring it's teeth and reaching through the window for Dave.

Vervet Monkey

Mangrove Kingfisher

Warthog

Other sighting include Blue Vervet and Vervet monkeys, beautiful blue kingfishers, groups of 20+ mischievous looking Banded Mongoose, giraffes, elephants, guinea fowl and Dik Diks, an antelope the size of a large hare!

Giraffe

Rain

Out on the lakes edge were miles of green meadow. The season had been very dry and I'm guessing this was often covered in water. The lake was so far away and low that we couldn't really see it - in the distance I could see a pink haze. This was apparently up to 3,000,000 flamingoes that lived over the far side of the lake.

Hippo at feeding time!

In this area we could also see lots of Cape Buffalo and hippos both wallowing in the mud and also out of the water. I think I got a bit close to one as it started making a bluff charge, but luckily for me backed off pretty sharply.

Lots of birds in the watering holes here. Egyptian Goose, Yellow Billed Storks, Marabou Storks, Pelicans etc.

Banana Saleman

Back in camp and I found a guy across the road selling red bananas. I've never seen red bananas before. The guy gave me one to try before trying to sell me stuff from his souvenir shop. The banana was sweet and very yummy.

Got to make use of the new cell phone that evening and contacted Glen who was just down the road from us. Both our groups met for drinks later.