2Taylors

After spending the morning in Tarangire National Park we headed for Lake Manyara, about an hour away. Lake Manyara National Park is on the tourist route to Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti and the town immediately before it is full of tourist shops. We stopped in the town to buy some veges and you could tell we were on the tourist route as they tried their hardest to charge us super inflated prices. Originally the guy wanted 8000Tsh for a kilo of potatoes – not likely when they should be 1000-1500Tsh. After much discussion, telling him there was no way we would pay that, him trying to tell us he has to add freight etc etc we finally agreed on 5000Tsh ($3.30) for a kilo each of  potatoes, tomatoes and onions which was really still a bit too much and we didn’t get a full kilo of everything, but we needed some veges.

We arrived at Lake Manyara National Park just before 4pm, as did every other tour group in the vicinity! It seems that the tour groups only spend a couple of hours here in the afternoon. It was like peak hour traffic, at times we could not move forward as there were so many cars stopped. This is probably the first game park for a lot of people as they travel from Arusha, so they understandably stop at everything but we don’t really need to stop and take photos of a giraffe off in the distance, so it was a bit frustrating. Once they started to head back to the gate before closing it was much more pleasant.

We spent the night in the park, but unfortunately didn’t hear or see anything. The amenities though are the cleanest and nicest in any national park so far (excluding Kruger and Etosha) even if they were still only cold water showers.

The lake itself does not have much water in it at the moment and you can rarely see any water at all, and then only when you can get a view above the lake. The road travels along the edge of the lake when it is full, but given there was little water it was more like a grass plain. The animals are not very plentiful except for the plains near the main entrance and hippo pool, which is also where all the tour groups spend their time. We did see though zebra, wildebeest, elephant, giraffe, warthog, hippo, olive baboons, vervet monkeys, blue monkeys, impala and buffalo.

In hindsight, the park was really not worth the money and we would have been better off spending another day in Tarangire. Maybe when the lake is full and apparently it is covered in flamingos it might be better.

We left the Crater about 2pm and endured the horrendous road to the Serengeti gate and then to Seronera. Given the crater cost us $400 and the Serengeti $200 a day and there are thousands of visitors, you would think they could use part of the money to maintain the roads. The safari vehicles speed along the roads without a care for their safety, we though did not feel comfortable travelling at such a speed with little control of our vehicle, so it took us some time to get to the gate.

Just when we thought we had had a fantastic day in the crater and really it couldn’t get much better, we came across a large pride of lions devouring a recently killed buffalo. There were at least 10 adults and 10 cubs feasting on the kill. The noise they made as they ate was incredible and watching the dynamics as they ate was fascinating. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay as long as we would have liked as we needed to make it to camp before dark. Then, not far from camp we came across 2 cheetahs! A pretty awesome start to our Serengeti visit.

Originally we planned to spend 2 nights in the Serengeti, but it was so fantastic we decided to spend 4 nights. There were soooo many animals, especially around the Seronera area, it was amazing! Our animal sightings included the following, as well as heaps of birds:

One afternoon we came across a cheetah not far from the road so we decided to sit and watch her for a while. She came within a few metres of our car at one point which was awesome. She was quite nervous, constantly looking around her as she attempted to get a drink, especially when a hyena walked past. Then she started stalking a gazelle and before we knew it she was in full flight and attempting a kill! Unfortunately she was unsuccessful, but to see a kill attempt was amazing. We saw her try again later that afternoon. Whilst we were watching the cheetah, Wayne noticed something in the background which turned out to be a hyena who successfully took down a gazelle. How amazing to be watching 2 kill attempts at the same time!

We sat for a while at a waterhole and watched as several herds of elephant took it in turn to drink and play in the mud. The little babies were so cute as they played around, getting stuck at times in the mud. The different groups of elephants seemed to greet each other as they took it in turns at the waterhole and as usual, the elephants were great to watch.

A leopard mother and her 2 cubs have been in the same area for the last month or so and we managed to see them a number of times. One afternoon the cubs had come down from their usual resting place high in the tree branches for a bit of play time. Whilst we were watching them a hyena came around, no doubt in search of some of the kill that the mother had dragged up into the tree. Nervously we watched as the hyena got very close to one of the cubs, hoping that it would not attack it, which thankfully it didn’t.  We also saw a number of other leopards during our visit, most of them resting high in the tree branches or sitting on a rock.

On one of our drives we saw what we think was a very small part of the migration. There were thousands of wildebeest crossing a small river. They were jam packed together, making a column about 50 metres wide that went on for ages, so far that we could not see the start of them. We both hoped that this was a good sign for the Masai Mara and that we would see the migration in full swing when we got there.

On our second day I started to get a sty in my eye which was getting sore, so I asked at the visitor centre if there were any medical services at any of the lodges that could give me some antibiotic drops for my eye, expecting to have to pay a tidy sum for the privilege. To my surprise he organised for one of the staff to take me to the staff dispensary where a lovely lady happily gave me the drops I needed, explaining that the service was free! I gave them a small amount to thank them, amazed at how helpful everyone was.

Once again we were definitely the odd ones out. During our 4 days we saw one other 4wd with a roof tent and couple of other hire cars. I think at one point we were the talk of the safari guides as once we stopped to ask a group what they had seen and the tourists in the back starting talking to us. Somehow they knew we were on a 6 month trip yet neither of us recall speaking to them previously. (We were chatting to number of the guides at the gate as we all waited in line to get our permits, so several of them knew a little about our trip). The photo is part of the car park at a picnic site at lunch time. Can you spot the odd one out?

We saw so many different animals and had such wonderful experiences whilst we were there, it was absolutely fantastic. Along with the crater, the Serengeti, especially at this time of year, is an absolute must if you are coming to Africa.