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Published: December 30th 2023
Our hotel above Lake Manyara, Luxury Escarpment Lodge, was probably our favorite of the three and I would have loved to spend 2-3 nights here to get the full experience of it. In addition to the beautiful setting and the amazing pool, they had a list of optional excursions you could do, such as hiking, biking, canoeing bird watching, Masai village tour, treetop tours, and even Balloon safari. In the morning, we finished our yummy breakfast and headed out to see Abdul for the next safari! He said that this would be a very different experience; the previous day at Tarangire, we had seen a lot of animals over vast distances, but today would be more of a jungle setting so we would not see as many animals, but the experiences we would have would be incredible. How right he was.
Lake Manyara National Park It was only about a 20 minute drive downhill to Manyara National Park entrance where we waited a few minutes while Abdul got our entrance tickets. This place seemed noticeably less busy, which I was personally happy about. We raised the roof and started our journey through the dense vegetation. Abdul was relying on
us a lot to spot some animals as it was not open like the previous day, so we had to be vigilant. This is also one of the few places where lions are found up in the trees; they use this as a way to hunt since they too are unable to get the big overview. Unfortunately, no one saw lions on this day, not even the other vehicles.
Our first encounters were with two separate groups of baboons, which yeah, sure. The second group was entertaining as clearly a 'teenager' was misbehaving and was being chased by an elder baboon while screaming and running around a bridge we were crossing. We quickly closed our windows, afraid he might try to escape with us! Then we came upon a large group of blue monkeys who were loudly playing in the trees on both sides of the road. We stopped and listened for a while, occasionally catching them playing and chasing each other. Not a huge monkey fan, but it was actually quite cute. Like, not a care in the world!
Continuing on, we kept seeing fresh elephant dung (Abdul pointed out how you could tell from the dung
whether it was male or female), so we knew we had to be close, but where were they??? Then, we got behind another truck who was watching an elephant in front of them! Finally! They moved around it after a few minutes, but we continued to sit and watch. The elephant was a bit ahead of us and studied us in turn, sometimes seeming to pose for us. She soon seemed comfortable with us and started walking directly toward us on the narrow road. We just watched and she passed right next to us - we could have reached out to touch her! (We did not, of course, as this is illegal and I would not want to bother her anyway). So incredible. Abdul was so right - we would be having great close experiences today, though not as many overall. This alone would have made the second safari worth it.
But wait, there is more!
We drove a little further up the road, maybe just 200m, and saw another 5 elephants having some lunch in the vegetation to one side of the road. Again, we just stopped to watch - they were quite close as well; we
could see them pull the shrubs with their trunks, heard the noises they made, watched their ears flap.... truly amazing. The one closest to us decided she wanted to eat on the other side of the road and she crossed, slowly, directly in front of our truck! So cool! We continued to watch them as another crossed behind us to join the other and then we left.
We had a short break at the picnic area where there were great views over the lake and forest - we even saw a solitary large elephant in the distance!
Continuing on, we saw a dik dik, which is like the smallest antelope species. It races ahead of us and disappeared in the bushes. They generally are found in pairs, but we just saw the one.
We got near the shore of Lake Manyara itself, when we saw a 'black' Masai giraffe on its own in the distance. Very cool. We continued driving along the shore of the lake, also seeing a herd of water buffalo in the distance. Abdul was apparently trying to take us to the hot springs, but we were stopped when we came upon an abandoned tanker
truck stuck in the mud. There was no going around it... well, except for another car that had somehow got behind it. So Abdul and another driver who was in a car near us helped guide the car some the truck. Once free, he confirmed there was nothing to see beyond it.
We turned around and headed on another road near the lake, this time seeing about 5 giraffes in the bear trees near the shore. We also saw some kind of eagle flying overhead.
At this point we were just about done. No lions in trees unfortunately. However we did encounter a solitary bull elephant, probably a youth, also getting fairly close to him while he ate his lunch. Seriously, the elephant encounters alone made this second safari unforgettable!
Safariland Abdul said he would take us somewhere to have our lunch and, as usual, he did not disappoint. Heading back past our previous night's hotel, we stopped at a popular tourist spot. On the upper floor are a couple restaurants, but also a lot of tables where you can bring your own picnic, which is what we did. I think they'd like for
you to at least buy a drink, but there was no pressure. After we ate, we explored the building. There was some amazing artwork, both as a gallery and some that were for sale. There were also some souvenirs and we each got a couple before joining Abdul to prepare for the last adventure!
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Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro
Elefants in Tanzania
One safari we went on once was a do-it-yourself-tour. That national park had no dangerous animals so we were free to go there without a guide and travel any way we liked. We rented bicycles. It was awesome to ride around by ourselves and not we trapped inside a vehicle. /Ake