Lake Manyara National Park

---

Our second national park in Tanzania was Lake Manyara.It took a few hours to get there and heavy overnight rain hadn’t helped the state of the roads. Along the way we passed several Masai villages. They are quite recognisable by the round mud huts but as the years go by, more and more Masai are living in brick houses.

Once inside the park we were immediately surrounded by a troop of large baboons. They were uninterested in us, but it was a great start to the day. Soon enough they were joined by a troop of black faced vervet monkeys. These two species live peacefully alongside each other – a fine example to humanity.

With thick vegetation all around us it was hard to spot anything, but Josh from Joash Africa Wilderness Insight was so good that he managed to pick out two or three black hornbills in thick undergrowth. Once again his eagle eyes ensured that we didn’t miss a thing.

A massive highlight for the day was seeing several hippos lounging around in their muddy pools. A couple of them had the good grace to yawn widely for us making for some great photos. They were surrounded by a rich and diverse variety of birds.

Although park restrictions mean you cannot actually get down to the lakeside, we were close enough to spot the flamingos in large numbers, glowing pink. Then, to cap the day off we saw a tower of giraffes running around by the water. The collective noun for these magnificent animals really is a tower!

Once again Trish kept a thorough list of everything we saw.

Animals: Wart hogs, terrapins, wildebeest, buffalo, elephants, zebras, blue monkeys, Sykes monkeys, hippos and giraffes.

Birds: Pied crow, silvery chip hornbill, yellow weaver birds, crested crane, whistling ducks, spoonbills, grey heron, Jesus birds (so called because they walk on water!), black egrets, sacred ibis (feasting on insects that were themselves feasting on a carcass), fish eagle, rufus-bellied heron, marsh sandpiper, palm nut vulture (apparently a very rare sight), ox peckers, long-tailed cormorants, great white egret, saddle-billed stork, African harrier hawk, Verreaux’s eagle owl, vinterline weaver, black boubous, morning thrush, superb starlings, pelican, hilderbrand starlings, grey-hooded kingfisher, and namo qua doves.

About 40 minutes from the park we stopped at the Karatu Country Lodge. This was a cut above the accommodation we usually stay in so it was a nice surprise. We had gained some altitude so the swimming pool was rather cold! After an excellent dinner we settled down for an early night as we had to be up at ridiculous o’clock the next day – quite a challenge for Russ!!

---

Photos

Sykes Monkey
All day we thought Josh was calling it a sex monkey!

Sacred ibis picking over the bones
Well, actually the insects on the bones.

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Wow...
Now that's a big mouth.