Pole Pole to Lake Manyara, Tanzania

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Our ride back from Amboseli involved me taking a turn in driving Fi's 4WD for a few hours which was some really interesting roads again, and I have a new found appreciation for bicumen. This appreciation was renewed again on the road the next morning as we began our Tanzanian tour which started from Nairobi and involved a 5 hour drive to Arusha.

Well, 5 hours in theory. We were about 1.5 hours late leaving - during which repeated to ourselves 'This is Africa' (otherwise known as TIA) - a slow pace for everything tends to be a way of life in Africa i.e. there are road signs saying 'Pole Pole' which means 'Slowly slowly' which started to become our motto pretty quickly. We hit the Tanzanian border after lunch and were there for another 1.5 hours - mostly due to our Tour Guide/driver having an expired passport (??!!) - hmmm, a sign of things to come? We hoped not!

So our arrival in Arusha was a tad late, but we managed to have a nice dinner at our lodge including a helping of Kilimanjaro Nachos - I think you can conjure an image without a picture for that one - hmmmm. We met the other 3 people on our tour - Heather from the US who had been working in Uganda, Nick from the US who was an archaeologist who had been working on human evolution in Kenya, and Ogola a local from Kenya.

The next morning we made our way to Lake Manyara, setup camp and had time for an afternoon game drive. Now, Lake Manyara is particularly famous for the lions which apparently sleep in the tree branches otherwise known as 'drop lions' and we were particularly excited to try and spot some. Unfortunately, no drop lions were to be seen, however we did see a load of other animals.

We were able to get out of the car at one stage at a specific viewing point at the Hippo Pool and were lucky enough to see some Hippos having a bit of a tussle - the smaller one backed off pretty quickly after the big one made a winning impression. We think they were fighting over a girl - typical boys! I also managed to see a hippo roll over in the water and waggle his legs and belly in there as he wet his back - sooo cute!

There were a whole heap of baboons hanging around - known for being pests and notorious for jumping on or into cars and trying to steal food (thankfully no run-ins on this occasion). We saw numerous giraffe, elephants, impala, kirk's dik dik (an unfortunate name, but they are really cute small mammals that look like marsupials in a way) and finally the blue-balled-monkey aka vervet monkey. It felt a little bit wrong to be shouting to everyone - get a picture of his balls! hee hee - the colour of them is just really abnormal and perhaps is a way of attracting the girls - perhaps a monkey's way of saying 'How YOU doin?' 😊

Dana and I also spotted a black mamba snake - one of the deadliest in the world (alas no photo, it moved as we drove past it) and a cute lizard (no idea what type). Later that night I made sure I zipped up the entire tent so no snakes could get in - though apparently this doesn't stop monkeys or baboons - they know how to open up zippers!! Hmm, maybe I should have re-thought this whole camping in Africa idea...

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Photos

Giraffe
Pretty giraffe by the side of the road as we drove to Arusha.

Baboon babies
Cute little baboon babies having a cuddle in a tree

Blue balled monkey
Okay, so this isn't the best shot, but you can just make out the blue balls behind his leg. hee hee

Hungry Hippos!
Wrestling hippos, they sure could open their mouths wide!!

Zebras & wildebeest
Dana and I communing with the locals at Lake Manyara

Lizard
A cute lizard of some description baking in the sun on a branch along a stream.

Lilac breasted roller
Such a pretty bird! This was Dana's favourite, and when it flies, it has this amazing blue coloured wings.

Kirk's dik dik
So cute, such an unfortunate name.

Agitated elephant
hmm, we were quite close to this elephant who was munching on some leaves, I think he was agitated by all the flies hence the flapping of his ears - Dumbo!! hee hee