Safari

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We left the next morning on Safari! our guide didn't seem to speak as good English as we were promised (David), but he did seem to be a sweet guy who would be a good guide. This turned out to be true, but there were also some problems ahead. The first day of our Safari was at Lake Manyara. We got there late morning and as soon as we entered the park we saw 3 Elephants - two adults and a baby - crossing a small river just on a hill above the jeep. It was a beautiful sight with the lighting through the trees and the colors. We drove around the park for the day checking out the monkeys, tons of Giraffes and a massive amount of birds - flamingoes, storks etc. We didn't see any tree climbing lions but apparently there aren't so many of them in the Lake Manyara area right now. It was a very nice park and seeing the lake as white because of the massive amount of birds on it was really amazing.
At the end of the afternoon as the sun was starting to go down we checked into our first safari lodge. We got a great deal on the safari - which we had heard about from a couple of Kiwis in Malawi. Since it was off season and tourism was down you could stay at the lodges for the same price that a camping safari usually was - so instead of $160+ a day we were just paying $80. The lodge was lovely. We checked in and I immediately jumped in the pool to cool off. We lay by the pool in the setting sun for a while with a magnificent view over the lake before washing up before dinner. Dinner was a very tasty 3 course buffet and after dinner entertainment was from a local dance troop. They were a lot of fun with great singing and dancing. The women screaming while moving their tongues from side to side like something out of Wild at Heart and their eyes taking on what looked like quite a demonic pose - wide and staring. Their feet were moving so fast and so hard against the stone patio I was quite worried for the long term health of their lower limbs. Our room had a great view over the lake and I left the curtains open over night so we woke up to the sunrise over the lake in the morning. It was really great to be staying in such an amazing hotel - especially after the previous months.

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