2 February 2013 - Lake Manyara to Plantation Lodge

Up at 6.30, breakfast at 7.15. Left the camp at 8. We drove around the park again for another 4 hours. A lot of birds, gazelles and we saw a heron stalk a frog in a waterhole, catch it, shake it around until it died and then the stork swallowed it whole. Sad for the frog but interesting to watch.

 Gazelle

 Grey heron stalking a frog

Got it!

 Lesser striped swallow

 Northern red bishop

 Dik-dik

Southern ground hornbill

We watched a kite tear apart a mouse it had caught.

Black kite

A family of baboons with very young ones were playing near the road, the mums keeping the babies very close. Saw blue monkeys, elephants, giraffe, impala, buffalo, a huge herd of wildebeest in the distance and the cutest and smallest of the antelopes called a dik dik.

Baby baboon

Elephants on the move

Having a rest

 

 Time to get up

Swinging in the branches

Mum doing a bit of grooming

Having a scratch on the tree

 Only way to travel

Black headed weaver

We stopped to eat our packed lunch in a little village not far away. Terry got suckered into the local shop but didn't buy anything.

Small village on the way

We then headed further towards the Ngorongoro crater for our nights accommodation, The Plantation Lodge. As the name suggests its a grand set of buildings on what was once a coffee plantation. After a couple of nights in comfortable tents this lodge was luxury.

Bedroom at Plantation Lodge

A heavy rainstorm came over just as Terry finished taking photos of all the beautiful flowers in the gardens. It was a torrential downpour.

A few of the flowers at Plantation Lodge

The outside of our room at the lodge

We headed over to the bar as that was the only place that had wifi. Looked at emails and got up to speed with how to put a blog together on an ipad. I thought it would be the same as a laptop, but it isn't. Anyway I now think I can work it out but will have to wait until The Seychelles before I can post anything as I doubt we'll have wifi again until then.

In the bar at the lodge

We had a meal in the dining room and got chatting to an English couple at one table and a single English lady at another table. Swapped stories of where we'd been, what we'd seen. Hit the sack about 9.30