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Next we approach a wetland area where we are able to get out of the vehicle and stroll on to a raised walkway, which goes a short way out over the marsh/wetlands. It is amazing how much birdlife as well as a few other species mammals there are close to us, so we spend about an hour observing and taking plenty of photographs.

 

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There are more zebra here along with wildebeest and hippos, and the bird species we managed to photo included flamingos, pink backed pelicans, Egyptian geese, grey heron, squacco heron, little egret (or maybe cattle egret?), black egrets ‘canopying’, African jacana, sacred ibis, glossy ibis, yellow billed stork, malachite kingfisher, black winged stilt, marsh sandpiper (probably?), and long toed lapwing.

 

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Note to self: Dont take photos of ourselves with very wide angle exposure - distortion! - I only weigh 192lbs!

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While at this location we only see two other vehicles, surprising as it is around midday, and we are still in the northern sector of the park. As we head onward in a south westerly direction, we are back in the forested area quickly. Monkeys seem to be everywhere and Chris tells us that some of the baboon groups consist of well over 100 individuals – this park is obviously well suited to them. We drive through a location known as ‘baboon city’ which has very tall straight trees on each side of the track. Hundreds of baboons sleep at the top of these trees every night. You know when you are driving through the area by the smell!

 

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Chris spots a large hornbill in a tree which he identifies as a silvery cheeked hornbill (although seeing the zoomed in photos later and checking in the ‘Birds of East Africa’ book I don’t think it is, as it doesn’t have a large casque – possibly a piping hornbill?) We see a giraffe in the distance and shortly after a couple of elephants disappearing into dense cover. Next on the agenda is a bushbuck partially obscured by the vegetation, and then another giraffe, much closer this time. As we continue southwards we spot a few impala standing in the shade as it has now become hot and even more humid.

 

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The landscape changes gradually with the escarpment wall steadily decreasing in height, allowing more of the clear blue sky to come into view, and the width of the park is much narrower now so you are close to both the escarpment to the west and the open plains and lake to the east. More monkeys are seen and two ground hornbills. There is still enough forest to conceal the largest of animals, as a few elephants cross over the track quickly vanishing in the forest.

 

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 Its time for us to press on and get to the camp as its nearly 2.00pm and they are expecting us for lunch  - eventually - and apart from that we are feeling hungry and  in need of a break as it already feels like a long day, and seems like a world away when we left Rivertrees early this morning. We spot two more small groups of elephants crossing the track and then as we drive round a bend the camp suddenly appears and we are greeted by a group of the staff singing, followed by welcoming us and giving hot flannels as we climb out of the landcruiser.  

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Amylovescritters

We opted to skip Manyara to afford 2 days in Tarangire and the crater... Now I’m wishing I had another day and night for Manyara. Lovely primate family interactions you captured!

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24 minutes ago, Amylovescritters said:

We opted to skip Manyara to afford 2 days in Tarangire and the crater... Now I’m wishing I had another day and night for Manyara. Lovely primate family interactions you captured!

@Amylovescritters

Fewer locations with more nights at each is best - less time travelling bewtween locations. 

The Ngorongoro Crater is a must, and everyone seems to like Tarangire, go to Manyara another time and spend at least two nights there.

Three days at Manyara for us was just enough time to see almost everything we were likely to see.

Lots more report from Manyara to come  - lions and more lions......... 

 

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So thrilled that you were able to make it to Tanzania.  I like the itinerary. 

 

In spite of a few bumps there at the start, it looks like you got into the groove soon enough. Yet another lesson for us all: bring multiple camera bodies. You never know what might happen. And if I had to choose between losing a body or losing a lens, I'd go for losing the body I most instances. 

 

I'm looking forward to the next installment. 

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Don't they say bad things happen in 3's?  That means you're done with the bad and ready for good stuff only.  Lake Manyara was a success and really looked like a lake.  Birdlife flourishing.

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10 hours ago, Alexander33 said:

So thrilled that you were able to make it to Tanzania.  I like the itinerary. 

 

In spite of a few bumps there at the start, it looks like you got into the groove soon enough. Yet another lesson for us all: bring multiple camera bodies. You never know what might happen. And if I had to choose between losing a body or losing a lens, I'd go for losing the body I most instances. 

 

I'm looking forward to the next installment. 

@Alexander33

Thanks - lots more to report.

I am going to replace the 60d camera with an 80d - very similar but with some significant enhancements and can get it new for around £650.

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7 hours ago, Atravelynn said:

Don't they say bad things happen in 3's?  That means you're done with the bad and ready for good stuff only.  Lake Manyara was a success and really looked like a lake.  Birdlife flourishing.

@Atravelynn

Thanks.

You are correct, the bad bits were done ( other than Rachel having a reaction to the Tsetse fly bites- but we were expecting that), so loads of good stuff to come.

A lot more from Manyara to come - so far I’ve only posted  the ‘extra’ game drive, ie the transfer to the camp. 

I think this report will take a long time to complete but i’ll try to post regularly over the coming weeks.

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Amylovescritters

Excellent! Cannot wait, especially for Namiri Plains!

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A boma-style enclosure fronts the rustic lodge, which looks quite stunning once inside. We are led up steps and are welcomed by the manager May who introduces us to our butler Isayah (a first for us on safari and it seems a bit over-the-top, but its really just a different way of allocating the staff time), and we are also introduced to the camp masseuse (at an additional cost – not something we want to spend time on while on safari).

 

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We walk up a few more steps to the lounge area and are given drinks while the manager runs through the usual information. Two game drives a day as expected, with breakfast in camp or packed bush breakfast (which is our choice). We don’t enquire about going out all day on a drive as the park is not large enough to need to travel further, and a lunch time break is more practical for us. We ask about the night drive and it is a 2 to 3 hour drive after dinner, so we book a night drive for tomorrow evening.

 

 

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Meals are served at individual tables (we much prefer communal dining with all the guests and some of the staff), so that means any contact with other guests will be very limited (not that there are many other guests – 7 others today and only 5 others tomorrow). The camp also has a pool but I doubt we will find the time to use it.

 

 Isayah then takes us to our room, which is actually a sort of stylish wooden cabin raised high off the ground. It is large inside with wood panelling throughout, and includes a comfortable large bed, a large deep bath and an outdoor shower, plus a large safe – so you can put camera equipment in as well as other valuables, plus electric and USB sockets. It also has an outside balcony that runs the full length of the cabin.

 

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We spend a few minutes freshening up and then go back to the lodge to have our late lunch (it is now about 2.30pm). After a quick lunch which was very nice we go back to our room to unpack, shower and prepare for the late afternoon game drive – which commences at 4.00pm.

 

 

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Feeling refreshed and relaxed we set out on our afternoon game drive. The weather has become hot and it feels really humid. It is now almost completely silent and for the next thirty minutes there are no signs of any animals or birds – as opposed to this morning when the wildlife presence was almost constant.

 

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Just as we become aware of the appearance of the first few annoying tsetse flies, we go round the next corner and the flies are instantly forgotten as Chris brakes sharply. A bull elephant is just about to cross the track.

 

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He soon disappears into the forest and we drive slowly on. We stop briefly where a small stream flows under the track and observe a solitary warthog.

 

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Another half and hour or more passes with no other wildlife to be seen. Chris suggests we head towards the lake to see if anything is there and initially there is nothing at all to be seen, but after continuing further south we eventually spot in the distance two lions resting. They are several hundred yards from the track and the light is beginning to fade as the sun has dropped below the escarpment. Chris decides to quickly head out towards them and we get a much better brief view before quickly retreating back to the track.

 

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A very nice way to end our first day of wildlife viewing in Manyara. We head quickly back to camp but there is still time to see another new species for the day – two klipspringers on some rocks.

 

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By the time we get back to the lodge it is dark, with the light of the campfire adding a bit of atmosphere to the camp. Half an hour later we go to the lounge for a drink before dinner and are joined by one of the locals- a greater bushbaby. Chris joins us to talk about the night drive tomorrow and to see what time we want to start our game drive in the morning – as early as possible suits us – 6.15am.

 

With guests on separate tables spread well out, and starting their meal at different times it seems very quiet in the camp. We are feeling tired after what has felt like an unusually long day, but the wildlife viewing has been excellent, and we are really looking forward to the rest of our time here in Manyara.

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Day 4: Mon 23rd Oct – 2nd day at Lake Manyara Tree Lodge

 

This morning turned out to be overcast for much of the time with rain clouds in the distance but we only had a very light brief shower mid- morning. The plan was to make our way quickly towards the dried out lakebed area that forms the plains, as the southern edge of this area was where we saw the two male lions yesterday evening.

 

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On the way we saw large numbers of baboons feeding on the ground, some zebra and a few warthogs. 

 

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As we approached the plains we spotted some impala, wildebeest and zebra in the distance. The closest part of the track runs parallel to the plains in an elevated position, but some distance back. 

 

 

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Two lions appeared on the plains and were moving determinedly south towards the zebra. One of them kept turning round and looking back to the north along the plains, and we then noticed quite a long way two adult male lions were sitting down. We moved a bit further along to keep up with the lionesses and stopped at spot which gave us an excellent view, although at some considerable distance, of a long stretch in either direction of the plains, lake and wildlife. Four adult warthogs had moved out on to the plains from the bush and stopped and stared when they noticed the lions. The lions gazes were still fixed on the zebra further away as they walked past the wildebeest, but then one of the warthogs started moving directly towards the first lion, and a second warthog followed behind but the other two retreated away from the plains.

 

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The second warthog stopped but the first one continued walking slowly towards the first lion as they stared at each other, before stopping abruptly as it appeared to finally smell the lion. For some bizarre reason the first warthog then decided to run directly out towards the lake, the second briefly followed it but then turned and headed away from the plains. Then everything happened so quickly and although we had a clear view the action was happening a few hundred yards away.

 

The first lion had already begun to chase the warthog, but the warthog had made a fatal mistake. Still heading directly towards the lake, in another few seconds the warthog had run into deep soft mud which slowed it down considerably. The gap between the lion and the warthog rapidly reduced to zero, followed by a cloud of dust and mud, then squealing as the lion brought the warthog down. It seemed to take a few minutes to finish off the warthog but the initial bite which the lion held on to for some time was obviously fatal as any further movement was just from the warthogs legs.

 

(We were too far away to get any good photos but I’ve included those below as they are all I have of the event.)

 

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The lion that killed the warthog kept staring at the other lion as it obviously wanted help in getting the warthog out of the mud, but the other lion refused to help and eventually the lion dragged the warthog carcass on to firm ground. Both the lions then walked away, further along the plains. We noticed the two adult males were making their way towards the carcass.

 

We continued to watch the two lionesses but every animal out on the plains was aware of them. We managed to get closer to them and you can see just how muddy it was by the state of the lion that caught the warthog.

 

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Chris then told us more about the lions of Manyara. There are three prides, the pride in the north consists of four lions, the central area pride has five lions and their territory extends into the southern prides territory at the northern most point of the plains. The southern prides consists of fifteen members including their cubs – and Chris was hoping we might see more of this pride on our night drive this evening as he was confident they would have to be out hunting tonight. Also regarding the two lionesses hunting, the one that caught the warthog was the sub adult daughter  of the other lioness, and we believe this may have been her first ever kill, which would explain why the other lioness left her on her own to deal with it.

 

We drove off to the northern end of the plains and did see, at a very long distance two adult male lions and one female lion that are part of the central pride. We continued with our game drive after stopping for breakfast and saw plenty more wildlife. By the time we arrived back in camp about 1.00pm our mornings wildlife viewing included many baboons, a variety of birds, waterbuck, bushbuck, elephant, impala, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, warthogs an ostrich, a red headed agama, and of course the lions.

 

Ground Hornbills

 

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little bee-eater

 

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d'arnaud's barbet (I think??)

 

 

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grey headed kingfisher

 

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bushbuck

 

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red-headed agama

 

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This was the first lion hunt we had ever seen – and we are on our sixth safari. OK it wasn’t a spectacular hunt but who would have guessed that out of all the places we have been – Kenya, north and south Tanzania, Botswana and India, that it would be Lake Manyara where we saw our first lion hunt.

Edited by Julian
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@Julian I'm really enjoying your coverage of Lake Manyara: we visited the park briefly back in 2005 on the trip which was to be the spur for founding ST: I would have liked to have spent more than an afternoon there really getting to know all the loops and viewpoints. We stayed in a campsite just down the road in Mto Wa Mbu, (River of Mosquitos), and also visited a very interesting and decidedly non touristy Maasai market. Also sampled some good banana beer there as well ;) You have some great birding images, enough to start your own Big Year thread...

 

Matt

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6 minutes ago, Game Warden said:

@Julian I'm really enjoying your coverage of Lake Manyara: we visited the park briefly back in 2005 on the trip which was to be the spur for founding ST: I would have liked to have spent more than an afternoon there really getting to know all the loops and viewpoints. We stayed in a campsite just down the road in Mto Wa Mbu, (River of Mosquitos), and also visited a very interesting and decidedly non touristy Maasai market. Also sampled some good banana beer there as well ;) You have some great birding images, enough to start your own Big Year thread...

 

Matt

@Game Warden

Hi Matt

I always suspected this park had a lot more to offer than all the tour operators, etc suggest.

Our first safari in 2001 also only gave us a glimpse of Manyara- one morning  game drive.

Given that when we we stayed there recently it was the very end of the dry season I think it’s obvious at just how beautiful this park is at other times of the year. 

It is also obvious to us now that it is crammed full with a very wide variety of wildlife, and also a birders paradise. OK, there are no wild dogs but even the occasional cheetah come to the southern plains bordering the lake at certain times of the year, they come across from Tarangire linked by a wildlife corridor.

We came away with the view that it is the most underrated park/ reserve in Tanzania, and that although lake Manyara tree lodge is currently the only camp for staying in the park, it is ideally located and a beautiful camp, realistically  priced outside of high season, and our guide was excellent. One of the Asilia staff at the other camps we stayed at told me that Asilia are looking at the options of opening a camp there.

 

 

 

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Great report so far @Julian so happy for you that your wife received a favourable health report enabling you both to travel.

 

Really like the look of your accommodation, very rustic from the outside but luxurious inside.

 

Lion kill would have been great to see! 

 

Great at photos of all the other game.

 

Sorry to have started my Tanzanian report when you are still doing yours. On our previous safaris I kept a journal each day, for some reason this time l neglected to take pen and paper. Needed to start my report whilst everything is fresh in my mind.

 

Looking forward to reading more of your adventures!

 

 

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5 hours ago, mopsy said:

Great report so far @Julian so happy for you that your wife received a favourable health report enabling you both to travel.

 

Really like the look of your accommodation, very rustic from the outside but luxurious inside.

 

Lion kill would have been great to see! 

 

Great at photos of all the other game.

 

Sorry to have started my Tanzanian report when you are still doing yours. On our previous safaris I kept a journal each day, for some reason this time l neglected to take pen and paper. Needed to start my report whilst everything is fresh in my mind.

 

Looking forward to reading more of your adventures!

 

 

@mopsy

Thanks for your comments.

No problem re us both doing our reports at the same time, there are always lots of reports in progress on Safaritalk.

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I’m enjoying this extended look at Lake Manyara @Julian, like most people we only spent part of a day in the park (and my wife had a migraine, and our guide was feeling sick and worried he was coming down with malaria, so it wasn’t the best day!).  One issue we had was finding reasonable accommodation in the park, Tree Lodge was too much for us. It’d be great if there are more options in the future, both for the tourists and for the health of the park.

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 When we turned up for lunch we were escorted on a brief walk into the woodland where a special lunch had been arranged for us – with sparkling wine – as ATR had informed the camps we stayed at that Rachel was celebrating her rather belated 50th birthday (actually back in July when we had to pull out of the planned safari to Zambia). It was a nice surprise and the food was very good again.

 

The afternoon game drive was, like yesterday afternoon, rather devoid of most animals but we still saw some elephants, plenty of baboons and some buffalo, and it did start off with something different – a Nile monitor lizard that had clearly eaten something very large. The drive ended with a sundowner at a picnic spot that overlooks the lake.

 

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fork-tailed drongo:

 

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Dinner this evening had to be eaten early – soon after we got back from the game drive - as we were going out on a night drive. We were introduced to the spotter, who would be sitting in the bonnet seat with a spotlight, and an armed ranger, in case we had a puncture and had to get out of the vehicle.  We departed promptly at 8.00pm and it was 11.00pm when we returned.

 

Chris was hoping to find the lions hunting and/or find a leopard, along with whatever else turned up, and the three of them were very thorough in their searching, as we covered a lot of ground including driving off-road on to the plains where we searched large sections of the plains. Whenever the spotlight picked something out the spotter immediately placed a red filter over the light to cause minimal disturbance.

 

Unfortunately the lions were not out hunting and we did not see a leopard. We did however see several hyenas, one of which was dragging a carcass (hyenas are only ever seen at night in Manyara), and quite a lot of hippos out of the water. We also saw a herd of zebra running when we were out on the plains, a white tailed mongoose, a few lesser spotted genets, hares, lesser bushbabies (as opposed to the greater bushbabies that come into the lodge) and lions.

 

The collared male we saw yesterday evening walked close by, and eventually we stopped at an area of dense woodland where Chris and the two park staff seemed to know there would be something there. After shining the spotlight into the dense bush we could just see through a small gap at about 30 yards distance some movement from lion cubs and adult lions. It was some more of the local pride eating, which meant that they had probably successfully hunted sometime between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.

 

The few photos I took are poor quality, but I have included some of them anyway.

 

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When we arrived back at camp we thanked the two park staff and promptly headed back to our room as we needed to be ready to go out in the morning at 6.15. We thought the night drive was carried out very professionally and we would highly recommend anyone who stayed here to ensure they try it. However we felt the three of them were a little disappointed that they did not find the lions hunting. They probably have little opportunity to do these night drives as the park does not appear to attract many people who would be interested in them.

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Nice selection of birds in post #17

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1 hour ago, Geoff said:

Nice selection of birds in post #17

@Geoff

Thanks Geoff, but I think you mean post 27 not 17, or post 39?

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Day 5: Tues 24th Oct – 3rd day at Lake Manyara Tree Lodge

 

Our last day at Manyara and, having encountered a few tsetse flies on the last two days, Rachel was now beginning to feel the effects from the allergic reaction she has to the bites – a white ulcer/chancre at the location of each bite surrounded by a red swollen patch (and in a couple more days some swelling of feet and ankles, and a bit of a fever on one day). Rachel took antihistamines daily, Benadryl, commencing a week before we left home, and we had plenty of antihistamine cream. The cream soothed the effects but the Benadryl didn’t seem to have any positive effect. (Rachel did see the camp medic a couple of days later at Ngorongoro Highlands camp who confirmed it was a typical allergic reaction and there was no cause for concern).

 

From talking to others on safari it appears that generally people either have no reaction or it is quite severe as with Rachel, and that maybe 5% (or more?) of people have this reaction. Luckily we encountered hardly any tsetse flies for the rest of the safari after leaving Manyara. (On our three African safaris between 2001 and 2009 we never encountered any tsetse flies and never heard anything about tsetse flies during those times, so maybe they were not around back then?)

 

The morning game drive commenced at 6.15am as usual for us. The weather was definitely about to change and thick dark clouds were blocking out any sunlight for much of the morning, with rainfall visible a few miles distant. After initially seeing some buffalo and baboons we looked for the lions on the plains but there was no sign of them, just some wildebeest and zebra in a marshy area.

 

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Next we visited the hot springs area where there is a walkway that goes out over the marshy springs. We watched the many flamingos feeding in the lake shallows for a while.

 

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As it is our last day here we wanted to get a photo of Chris and he then took one of us.  

 

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