31 January 2013 - Arusha to Lake Manyara Camp

Had a sleep in till 7, breakfast and back on the road around 8.30. Our jeep was a Toyota Landcruiser, the roof can be pushed up but it's used on main roads and off roads so it's quite different to the jeep we had in Botswana.

Gabriel drove us through the city of Arusha. About 1 million people live in the city, traffic was chaotic, reminded us of India. There's a tall clock in the middle of Arusha which marks the midway point in Africa, equidistant between the top of Egypt and Cape Town in South Africa.

Lots of people going to the market as it was market day, selling their produce from their own farms or allotments.

Market day in Arusha 

 Shopping mall in Arusha

 Steet scene outside the market

 Outside the market

 Inside the market

 Carrying produce

Traffic chaos in Arusha

We had a short walk and then got back in the jeep heading west to Lake Manyara. It was a main highway, asphalt with one lane each way. Loads of old trucks belching out black smoke, the smell was bad and the air pollution thick until we'd got some way from Arusha. 

A van on the road out of Arusha

We stopped at a small town Mso twa Mbu (means river of mosquitos). Gabriel said we'd get swamped with touts trying to sell their wares and he was right. We had seen a couple of stalls that had lovely canvases of the Maasai warriors, so we bought a couple. Of course as soon as you buy from one you get many others begging you to buy from them. We stopped at buying from two places and got back in the jeep so Gabriel could take us away...

Our accommodation for the night was Lemala Manyara Camp in the middle of a national park.

 Billboard inside the national park

 Sign inside the national park

Gabriel (our driver/guide) preparing the jeep for our drive through the national park

We took some hours to drive from the start of the park to our camp. We saw giraffe, hippo, elephant, impala, warthog, zebra, wildebeest, baboons, vervet monkeys, blue monkeys and loads of buffalo. Most of the game was near the lake. Out in the centre of the lake which was not very deep, was a huge flock of pink flamingos. We couldn't get that close but could see them through the binoculars. We also saw some unusual cranes called crown cranes.

 Baboon

 Hippos grazing

 Fruit on a sausage tree

 Baby baboon riding on mum's back

 Blue monkey

 Juvenile vervet monkey, the testicles are this colour until they reach maturity

Grey headed kingfisher

 Heron and geese

 Common zebra

 Elephants

 Grazers

 Buffalo

 Crown crane

 Crown crane

 Giraffe's getting amorous

Zebra and giraffe

Crown crane 

 Very muddy tortoise

 Two headed giraffe?

Family of warthog

As we got near to the camp our guide received a call on the radio which led him to 6 tree climbing lions... amazing. A couple of these lions were already asleep on a branch and a few others climbed the tree to have their nanna nap. We watched them for some time and Terry snapped off 45 photos. These lions are very rare, it was very considerate of them to pick a tree right next to the road for us to view them.

We got into camp which is a "tented" camp. The tents have a normal bed, wooden floor and bathroom facilities. You have to order water for the shower which is called a bucket shower and the toilet runs off a water tank that has to be filled up by bucket. So it's a little more basic than what we encountered in Botswana but very comfortable.

 Our bedroom in the tent

Our tent

There were two other couples in camp, both American both on their first day of Safari and only staying the one night at Lake Manyara. We had a great chat before dinner. It started raining quite heavily so we moved into the mess tent. One of the couples were on their honeymoon so they took their dinner in their tent. The other couple had their meal with us in the mess tent. Lots of conversation until about 9.30 when we all headed to bed.