Lake Manyara

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LAKE MANYARA ANIMAL PHOTOS

We just wanted to share a few of our pictures with you from our venture out to lake Manyara this last week.

As we traveled towards mtu wa Mbo... Lake Manyara is just a little past the church building.... the National Park there is actually the nearest clean "flush toilet" around the area. (which reminds me I have a funny story to tell about that particular bathroom and a life threatening incident with a lizard, but I'll share that later on)

We decided to go out and see the animals last Wednesday morning before going to church at Mtu wa mbo aka. "Mosquito River" where Cotton was scheduled to teach class there that afternoon.

The kids had a blast! We had a Safari guide truck to drive us through the park to get a good look at everything there was to see. It was an eden... a forest like area of hills and the lake just beyond the trees through few meadows.....or plains. There were animals everywhere... herds of Gazelles, migrant birds of every shape and color,giraffes langering through the tall grass, Hippos splashing a long the lake shallow banks... Monkeys just right outside your windows swinging and eating in the trees....We found one faithful little Blue monkey that was actually praying before he ate his dinner or so the kids thought it looked like he was!

The truck we were in had a detachable top, so the kids (I say kids we all had the wind blowing through our hair) got to stand in their seats and get a birds eye view of everything around them. But more than anything we saw, ELEPHANTS, ELEPHANTS, and more ELEPHANTS that day they were everywhere... Blocking the roads, eating the trees next to the road.. We literally drove up next to two of them eating on a tree right along side the road and the massive creature stood taller than the safari truck we were in. I took a picture of the kids hanging out of the top of the truck so close that we could have touched him if we had wanted to.... (but mom advised that that wouldnt be a wise idea!)

Aww it was just amazingly beautiful... I cant say enough about how seeing How in God's glory & magesty he took the time to perfectly stripe the graceful grant gazelle to seperate them ever so slightly from the thompson gazelles... its these things, these details, that make this world such a blessed and beautiful place in which to live! (the little things)

I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures, although I know they never do justice to portray the ultimate natural beauty that we've been so blessed to see here in Tanzania!

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