Kwaheri Serengeti (Goodbye Endless Plain)

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Today we’re off to Lake Manyara, on checkout the same guy who checked us in was there. But he was really chatty, friendly and even smiled! So perhaps he was just having a bad day when he checked us in…

We’ve decided it’s time to introduce Roman to the world of the iPod, I have some country music on it that he will like and anything would be a change from Don Williams, and it’s probably my only chance of listening to Dolly Parton and Alan Jackson in the same car as Tim!

OF ALL THE THINGS WE COULD GIVE TO AFRICA….

Yay, the radio tuner works on the stereo, so while Roman is arranging our permits to drive through Ngorongoro National Park (yes you need as permit just to drive on the road around the rim - you can’t even see into the crater!) I play around and the iPod works! Tim gets his fix of Hamish and Andy while we’re waiting so he’s a happy chappy.

When Roman gets back, we try to explain as best we can how the iPod works, he keeps looking for the wires to make it come out of the speakers.

So we listen to a few hours of Dolly Parton and Alan Jackson and I decide to see if I can interest him in something else, so I try James Blunt and he ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT!!! I manage to play Your Beautiful and Cry and have to rewind it over and over, then we move on to Wisemen and again it’s “rewind again please”! We played the whole album - eventually but he still kept going back to those songs. In a funny social experimental kind of way, it’s ironic that the songs that we presume become the hits because they are the ones played repeatedly by commercial stations are the same ones that someone who has never even heard of the artist immediately becomes drawn to…

I show Roman how to use the rewind button on the iPod and while Tim and I look in a souvenir shop, all we can hear is Your Beautiful being belted out in the tranquil Tanzanian countryside as loud as his poor speakers will allow! The ‘shop’ is actually an enormous tin shed with clear roof panels to let in some light. It is huge and filled to the brim with every conceivable piece of carved wood animal you could want. Since we’ve liked the candle theme of our past hotels we manage to dig out 2 wooden elephant carved candle holders and after much bargaining, finally agree on a price, 30,000 schillings for the 2 of them.

Roman has asked them to see if they can get hold of a Tanzanian flag for me to add to my collection, so far I have got one for every country we’ve been to. They will see what they can do and we will stop by on our way to the airport tomorrow.

So after everything Roman has given us, sharing his vast knowledge of animals and birdlife and his most beloved country, the best we can offer is the iPod and James Blunt! At least we have shared something!

So whenever we are not in a National Park (where stereos are not permitted) we have James Blunt playing - loud, we’ve created a James Blunt monster! But he’s having a good time, whistling and now being able to sing along with some of it.

ANOTHER SERENA HOTEL

We check into the Lake Manyara Serena Hotel in time for lunch.

The difference in staff to the Serengeti was so noticeable. Everyone that you came across was so nice!

From the restaurant we can watch these tiny little squirrels racing about in the trees, they look like a tiny mongoose, I like this hotel more and more!

The rooms were similar to Serengeti as they were still huts but a slightly different style as the countryside was different here. It was also set high on a hill overlooking Lake Manyara which is huge, at the longest part it stretches as far as the eye can see. From our balcony we overlook the swimming pool and Lake Manyara, beautiful.

LAKE MANYARA, SO DIFFERENT TO THE OTHER PARKS

Mid afternoon we head down to Lake Manyara. While Roman does the obligatory permit collection Tim gets the roof up, finally on the last day we figure out how!

The scenery here is so different to the other places we’ve been. Considering maybe 2-3 hours drive is all that separates each park it amazes us how different they all are. It’s all very green, lush and has that tropical overgrown feel to it.

We aren’t too far in when we see 2 elephants in the middle of the road. So we wait. Then he decides it’s a good time to use the bathroom, so we wait some more - it’s a big elephant so this takes a while! Eventually he goes along on his way down into the jungle. At the bottom of the hill where he went is a small pond and there is a whole family of elephants, including a baby all having a bath. We watch for as long as we can stand the smell of what the elephant left behind then it’s quickly time to move on!

Not far along we encounter a family of baboons, at a guess I would say there was more than a hundred, you could see the trees moving further into the forest so there would have been so many we couldn’t see. We sit and watch t hem playing and doing their thing for ages.

Right next to our car there are 2 tiny babies playing on a log. They would both start on the log and wrestle to push the other off. When one falls off, he climbs back up and the game starts again. This is a game you could imagine any 2 human kids playing, incredible.

We could have stayed there for hours but time to move on. We see lots more baboons, some blue velvet monkeys, gazelle, zebra and so the list goes on.

Of course Roman takes us to a hippo pool! But this is the Hippo Pool of all Hippo Pools! It is huge and there are zebra, wildebeest, water buffalo, gazelles, so many different birds all mingling together. It’s like a scene from the Lion King - minus the lion!

We move along and finally get to the lake. You can’t actually drive very close to the lake, which is not a bad thing because the abundant wildlife covers every spare bit of grass along the lakes edge. There are also thousands of Flamingos in the lake. All the pink and white of them moving around along with the shimmering of the lake makes it all look like someone has scattered blue, pink and white glitter over everything, it’s mesmerizing.

It’s the kind of place, even if you saw nothing it’s just such a nice place to drive in an open top vehicle, so tranquil and peaceful. A place of contentment.

Back to the hotel in time for tea and our waiter, Sudi, is a truly nice man, it’s really quiet in the hotel at the moment so he comes and talks with us for ages. He tells us about his wife, an accountant and what a good woman she is and how she has turned his life around. They were married 4 years ago next month and their wedding cost $2,500 USD (or 3,000,000 schillings). They have now bought a block of land for $200 USD in a country area (the city is far more expensive) and have built a small house on it for $10,000 USD and he has just bought a big screen plasma for $1,000 USD. You can tell how proud he is of his life.

What a great end to a great day.

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