Safari in Lake Manyara National Park

We meet our guide, Donald, after breakfast at 8 am and hit the road. Our first national park is called Lake Manyara national park. It's about 2 hours away on a nice tar road.

During this part of the drive, we go through a long fertile plain where Masaïs are herding goats and cows. The landscape is green and lush. Very different from Namibia and Botswana. The vegetation is not exactly the same.

Lake Manyara is the second smallest national park in Tanzania and is 3/4 lake and some paths around it.

We start our game drive in earnest and Donald pop open the roof of the car. At first I thought that this would be a gimmick, considering that the windows are so big, but turns out, it's really good to take pictures. It's also pleasant to be able to stand whenever you need or want. Being seated for so long with the bumps on the road would have been tiring.

The vegetation is very thick and lush. Acacia trees are shading the landscape like big umbrellas. They made the few giraffes we saw look short. That's how tall and imposing the trees were. Some had white flowers. They were beautiful.

I really enjoyed the scenery of this national park.

Wildlife wise, I thought first that it was going to be a monkey day ( especially baboons ! ). They were everywhere on the first hour or so.

Turns out, I think it was an elephant day. We saw many, regularly and as close as touching the car. The animals are so used to the jeep that they completely ignore you, and just pass as if you were a tree. The guide gets us really close, and the huge pachyderms are extremely calm.

We thought we had seen them really well before in Botswana & Namibia, this is another level of close.

Because it's near a lake, we see some geese, egrets, pelicans and herons. We also saw water bucks, impalas, warthog, giraffes, buffalos and zebras.

The new animal today were: a bishop bird ( bright red! ), a ground hornbill and velvet monkeys.

We also decided on a new nickname for the Velvet monkey: blue balls. Because, well, theirs are blue.

Lunch was under a beautiful tree, with a view of the lake. We were the first ones there before we saw the 15 more safari cars coming later. Donald says that we are visiting at the right time:  in-between high seasons. It's quieter now, otherwise it's 200 jeeps in Ngorongnoro crater tomorrow.

I like the stop, the forest smells nice and the temperature is just perfect, not too hot, with a breeze.

We end up spending the entire day in the reserve. From 10am until 4:30pm. But I didn't see the time fly. It was a very pleasant and comfortable day outdoor watching for wildlife.

Our lodge tonight is surprisingly nice. I think we are among the first ones. Donald has never been and the place looks brand new. I feel like our travel agent has found a good deal with this and upgraded us. This is sweet. It's small villas in a private compound in the countryside. Ends up that we are the only customers today. We enjoy the pool, a huge diner and go to bed.