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Lake Manyara National Park
Stretching for 50km along the base of the rusty-gold 600-metre
high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara is a scenic gem, with
a setting extolled by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I had
seen in Africa”.
The compact game-viewing circuit through Manyara offers a
virtual microcosm of the Tanzanian safari experience.
From the entrance gate, the road winds through an expanse of
lush jungle-like groundwater forest where hundred-strong baboon
troops lounge nonchalantly along the roadside, blue monkeys
scamper nimbly between the ancient mahogany trees, dainty
bushbuck tread warily through the shadows, and outsized forest
hornbills honk cacophonously in the high canopy.
Contrasting with the intimacy of the forest is the grassy
floodplain and its expansive views eastward, across the alkaline
lake, to the jagged blue volcanic peaks that rise from the
endless Maasai Steppes. Large buffalo, wildebeest and zebra
herds congregate on these grassy plains, as do giraffes – some
so dark in coloration that they appear to be black from a
distance. Inland of the floodplain, a narrow belt of acacia
woodland is the favoured haunt of Manyara’s legendary
tree-climbing lions and impressively tusked elephants. Squadrons
of banded mongoose dart between the acacias, while the
diminutive Kirk’s dik-dik forages in their shade. Pairs of
klipspringer are often seen silhouetted on the rocks above a
field of searing hot springs that steams and bubbles adjacent to
the lakeshore in the far south of the park.
Manyara provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s
birdlife. More than 400 species have been recorded, and even a
first-time visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to observe
100 of these in one day. Highlights include thousands of
pink-hued flamingos on their perpetual migration, as well as
other large water birds such as pelicans, cormorants and storks.
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