The Great Rift Valley

The pattern of our trip is going to be early nights and mornings – given that the sun rises at 6.30am and sets exactly 12 hours later it fits the rhythm of the days. We leave at 8.30 for the Great Rift Valley, travelling mostly along the Trans Africa Highway again and arriving around two hours later.

The Manyara Wildlife Safari Camp has a fantastic location, overlooking the rift valley and with distant views of Lake Manyara. Our rooms are stone, two storey cabins and Alex has the one above ours; the path opposite leads to a view of a magnificent baobab. Our bathroom features a resident frog.

The pool overlooks the valley and we relax there with a beer before lunch, watching the Maasai herders below. Lunch is buffet style and the food is the best so far; service is also extremely attentive. It’s a pity we’ll only be spending one night here.

 

This will be my first visit to Lake Manyara National Park, which is noted for its tree-climbing lions. The journey takes around half an hour and while Isaac and Goodluck do the paperwork we explore an abandoned interpretation centre that reminds me of Jurassic Park 2. Massive birds sit in the branches of the trees above us.

 Inside the park the tracks are narrow and flanked by trees; their foliage is covered in red dust. We quickly find a troop of baboons, which will please Matt who was keen to see monkeys.  Baboons are the main feature in the forest, although Isaac shows us the type of tree where if we’re fortunate we might see a lion or a leopard keeping cool. No big cats, but we do spot some hornbills.

The forest gives way to plains as we approach the edge of the lake where we spot zebras in the distance, and there are buffalo among the many birds. We’re amused by one that’s doing a passable impression of a flasher (bird, not buffalo!).

Our next stop is a hippo pool, then we head back into the bush where we see a family of black faced vervet monkeys. Still no sign of the tree-climbing lions, but suddenly I spot a large grey shadow and – elephant!  A whole family cross behind our vehicle and stop to feed quite happily alongside us only a metre or two away.

We watch them for a while and then begin to head back towards the exit passing a giraffe, and then another, among the trees. Closer to the gate monkeys of all ages frolic around some buildings and when we stop to sign out we find the others saw a warthog, too.

We return to the lodge for a brief from Isaac on the firepit terrace and then take our sundowners to the gallery above the restaurant. After an excellent buffet dinner we spend a short while in the bar before bed. In our rooms, the staff have sprayed for mosquitoes and put down the mosquito nets.