Lake Manyara
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2008
1
13
23
Trip End
Mar 03, 2008
Lake Manyara,
Tanzania
Saturday, February 16, 2008
We then drove through central Arusha which Moses explained is a very dangerous place at night and he pointed out the banks with armed guards. We then headed off on a two hour drive to Lake Manyara which is in the Great Rift Valley that stretches 10,000 km from the Dead Sea in Jordan to Mozambique.
Our game drive started off slowly with some baboon and impala sightings. Then we saw our first vervet monkey. The distinctive feature of the male vervet monkey is its impossible to miss unnaturally coloured bubblegum blue balls that apparently get bluer during mating season. At the edge of the lake we saw large flocks of pelicans and storks and our first sighting of hippos. Because they don't have sweat glands, they need to stay in the water during the day to stay cool, only coming out at night to feed on grass, eating up to 40 kilograms a night. Maybe that's the inspiration for the game Hungry Hungry Hippo. Apparently hippos are quite dangerous and have been known to kill humans who inadvertently get between them and their escape to water. Despite their size they can run up to 25 kilometres an hour.
After the hippos we saw two male giraffes fighting over female giraffes. The giraffes fight in a comical fashion by standing side by side with their hind legs crossed, swinging their long necks at each other. A fight can last up to two days until one giraffe gives up and flees leaving the victor with multiple wives. There also seemed to be set rounds as the giraffes would intermittently stop fighting and stand side by side like buddies.
Moses then smelled elephant droppings and we were on the lookout for our first elephants. We spotted a few from afar and Moses thought he could get us a lot closer. We got a lot closer. In fact, there was a whole family of elephants hanging out right by our truck only a few feet away. Mel swears that one of the elephants turned and looked right at her and she pulled back in surprise. One of the elephants was thoroughly enjoying himself by wallowing enthusiastically in a mud bath. We sat there watching them for quite awhile in awe. It was surreal how close we were to these giant wild creatures. Our stunned silence was interrupted by another guide informing Moses that lions had been spotted ahead. We made our way to the spot and Moses' sharp eyes picked out two female lions guarding a partially consumed zebra with vultures and stocks waiting for their taste of the meat.
We spent the night at Lake Manyara Serena Hotel which had a pool that overlooked the Rift Valley and Lake Manyara. The pool was constructed so that you felt that you could swim from the pool into the lake. We watched the sunset there and it was a perfect ending to our day.
