Tour Day 1 – Lake Manyara National Park
Pick-up from Backpackers and depart to Lake Manyara. Arrive lunch time, game drive in Lake Manyara National Park, overnight Twiga Campsite.
Our first day on safari begins with a bit of a glitch. There’s no problems with the tour company – our guide Andrew shows up right on time and ready to begin.
The delay is us… we have to wait for the results of Eric’s malaria test.
HE’S FINE – DON’T WORRY!!!
He passed the test – or failed it, depending on how you look at it… he doesn’t have malaria!
Eric’s been feeling a little off since we arrived in Arusha, We’re both on anti-malaria medication, but unfortunately this doesn’t mean we can’t catch it… go figure. Instead it means if we do catch it, the symptoms can be mistaken for less serious ailments, like a cold or food poisoning.
And since the most common form of malaria in Tanzania is also the most serious form and we’re heading out into the unknown for 5 days, we don’t want to take any chances. So after breakfast, we walk over to a nearby clinic and Eric gets a blood test and a diagnostics check from the doctor.
In the end it turns out it is just a bit of food poisoning and the doctor recommends he take a dose of the antibiotics we brought with us. As far as we’re concerned, the false alarm was worth the 1-hour delay to our departure… we try to think of it as us going by “African time”.
Andrew makes a great first impression! As we drive to Lake Manyara he fills our heads with information about the area and the people, as well as finding out our expectations for the trip. Lucky for him, we understand that animals aren’t predictable, don’t follow any schedules and it’s the luck of the draw with what you see. So as far as we’re concerned, we’re just happy to be out on safari, enjoying the amazing scenery!
After a short stop at a local craft market – a mandatory stop for all safari trucks – we arrive at Twiga Campground just before lunchtime.
We meet our cook David and while he prepares lunch, Eric and I have time to go for a walk through the town of Mto Wa Mbu, which apparently means “mosquito river”… a very comforting name after having had a malaria scare as recent as this morning.
Upon our return to the campsite, Andrew escorts us to our lunch spot – a nicely laid out table with tablecloth on the lawn of the camp. We can tell from our meal that David takes pride in his work…oh this is going to be good!!!
After a very satisfying lunch, Andrew, Eric and I pile into the truck and drive to Lake Manyara National Park where we spend the remainder of the day cruising around, checking out the landscape and looking for wildlife.
Our first spot of the day is courtesy of Eric – it’s a “Blue Monkey”, which is a new type of monkey for us!
During our walk through town, Eric and I kept noticing lots of large birds in the air above us. Andrew lets us know these are “White Storks” and Lake Manyara is a migrating destination for them. They come from Europe each year to breed and take over the park. Another new sight for us…
Lake Manyara National Park is quite beautiful with baobab trees smattered throughout the various terrains of forest, plains and lakefront.
The lake itself is teeming with wildlife…
Yes, those are hippos amongst the storks.
… and on the nearby plains, we spot my favourite, giraffes.
This particular breed is the Masai Giraffe.
Our afternoon drive is so jam-packed with sights and information when it’s over, we’re exhausted... though we still have enough energy left for dinner.
When we arrive back at camp we find David has prepared afternoon tea, complete with fresh-popped popcorn, to tide us over until our dinner under the stars.
Dinner is delicious – leek soup, beef stew, vegetables, rice & beans and fruit. Afterwards we crawl into our tent satisfied, “good-tired” and excited for tomorrow… we’re driving to the Serengeti!
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