Africa Trip 2024 - Day 10, Lake Manyara

[This is post #19 of 21 posts about our 2024 trip to Africa. To go to the first post in the series CLICK HERE.   At the end of the last post there is also a Directory with links of all 21 posts.]

We woke up on Day 10, September 19, at Lion's Paw Camp on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater.  

One of the lions at Lion's Paw Camp on the morning of September 19

We were able to sleep in a bit and get a slightly later start before beginning the long trek to our next destination, Lake Manyara National Park and eventually Maramboi Tented Lodge.

The early part of the day was driving only, without stops for pictures.  It was almost exactly 8 am when we pulled out.

Around the eastern edge of the crater.  The first portion of the trip was along the eastern rim of the crater.  There was a high berm overgrown with trees and brush between the road and the crater, so there was no opportunity for checking out the view.  There would have been nothing to see anyway since the rim was covered in thick morning fog.  

We did see multiple places next to the road where the ground had been disturbed  Apparently the elephants dig into the dirt to expose salt and minerals which supplement their diet.

Track of Day 10 in bright green

It was just under 16 miles from Lion's Paw Camp to the point on the crater where we turned onto the major highway, T17, and began the descent down off the rim.  We had moved along steadily without stops, but it took almost exactly an hour.  It made us really appreciate what we had been told about the advantages of staying in a camp near one of the entrances to the crater.

After a brief stop for Fazal to handle the paperwork at the exit gate, we eventually made it to the edge of the conservation area.  The road was now paved and we made much better time, at least until we had to slow down while going through the town of Karatu. 

Making out way through Karatu, Tanzania

There seemed to be every type of store along the road, clothes, furniture and even a butcher shop. They all seemed to be open air on the street side.  They had more the architecture of what I would think of as a road side vegetable stand at home.

At the Overlook--Lake Manyara NP   We eventually arrived at the overlook at the far northern end of Lake Manyara NP at about 10:15.  

Most of Lake Manyara NP is a narrow strip running between the western wall of Gregory Rift (the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley) and Lake Manyara, an alkaline lake to the east.  I don't know how high the very steep western wall is, but multiple sources talk about it being 600 m high.  That is almost 2000 feet.  Whatever the actual height, it is impressive.

We got out at the overlook to shoot pictures while Fazal went inside to pay the entrance fees. 

View from the overlook looking south

We were at the top of a high escarpment looking out over a part of the Great Rift Valley with Lake Manyara at the bottom.  It is fed by water from the Ngorongoro Highlands, either from streams off the escarpment or from springs.  There is no outflow, hence its alkaline nature. 

We had actually been here (kind of) several days before.  Below is a picture taken as we took off from the Manyara Airstrip in the little plane on our way to Serengeti NP.

Picture #1 from the plane (see location of plane on map below).  This is looking south.  The road immediately below is T17, what we descended to eventually reach the turn off to the park entrance.  The overlook is along the side of T17 near the top of the escarpment.  Just visible on the left is the road back into the park.  Lake Manyara is in the distance on the left.

The road in the picture above is coming down from the escarpment.  It is relatively steep.  It drops about 700 feet between the overlook and the turnoff to the park road.

Topo with gps track of north end of Lake Manyara NP.  From the Overlook to the turnoff to the park entrance.

The picture below (Picture #2) is 7 seconds later as we flew east before making a u-turn over the lake to head towards Serengeti NP.

Picture #2 from the plane (see location of plane on map above).  The road below goes back into the park.  T17 and the overlook are no longer visible to the right.

Lake Manyara is different.  Lake Manyara is significantly different than any of the other safari locations we visited in Africa.  It is mostly dense forest rather than open grasslands.  Much of the forest is an evergreen groundwater forest, meaning the water comes primarily up through the soil rather than from rainfall.  

Much of the area of the park is the very shallow Lake Manyara.  Other than the tiny strip next to the lake, the land is anything but flat with the 2000 foot escarpment on the west side. 

Different Animals.  Since this was a fairly dense forest with little or no grasslands, there was a different mix of animals.  Unlike most other places we had been, there were few antelopes but lots of primates of various kinds.

There are 30 species of monkeys in Africa, but only 2 species, Blue Monkeys and Vervet Monkeys, live outside of rainforests.  We saw both of these types at Lake Manyara.

Almost immediately inside the park we started to see multiple Blue Monkeys.  Some were on the ground.

Blue monkey

Others were in the trees.

Blue monkey eating leaves in a tree

Baboons are of course primates, but are not monkeys.  There were lots of baboons.  This guy was sitting immediately beside the road and did not move even when we stopped to take his picture.

Baboon at the side of the road

Here he is in video, including a big sneeze at the end.

He finally decided to meander up the road and join the others.

 

We also saw several baboons making their way across one of several streams in the area.

Lots of bids.  There were also lots and lots of birds.  According  to Wiki more than 390 species of birds have been documented in the national park.  We did not see nearly that many, but we did see some interesting ones that were definitely new to us including the crowned hornbills below.

Crowned hornbills

Elephants.  I was particularly anxious to see the elephants.  I had read Among the Elephants by Iain Douglas-Hamilton and Oria Douglas-Hamilton.  The book describes the Douglas-Hamilton's experience in Lake Manyara NP in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

In 1965 Iain started research for his doctoral thesis at Oxford by keeping accurate records of the elephants at Manyara while living in the park.  He was eventually joined by Oria, who became his wife, and eventually by their two children.  It was his work that showed, contrary to the belief at the time, that elephants live in stable family units and the social structure of the groups is almost entirely matriarchal.  Each group is led by a senior cow and the group looks for food within a defined territory.

We first saw a lone elephant.

Lone elephant

Then we later saw a larger group crossing the road, including some young ones.

Elephants have the right of way

 

  Seeing the little one close up, I was surprised to see he already had little tusks.

Momma keeping a close eye on things since there were several vehicles close by. 

Running to catch up

A Family of Vervet Monkeys.  We had to stay on the road and there was fairly thick brush in most places along the sides, but we still kept seeing lots of animals.  This time it was a family of Vervet Monkeys.

We first saw a mother Vervet Monkey nursing a little one.

Vervet Monkey nursing a little one

When they left, the baby hung on under the mother as she walked away.  I don't know the age of the baby, but since it is still riding on its mother's chest it is likely less than 4 months old.

Mother with baby underneath

Here is a video of the mother with the baby underneath.  That is a Dik-dik in the background.

I don't know where he had been hanging out, but Daddy soon followed after them.

Male Vervet Monkey

A Dik-dik antelope ignored both us and the monkeys and continued eating.  He looked so tiny, but he was probably full grown since they only reach a height of 14-17 inches.

Dik-dik

As we moved further south in the park we lost most of the other vehicles and were soon by ourselves.  That gave us an opportunity to more easily explore some of the many meandering roads.  

Southern Ground Hornbills.  Along the water's edge we discovered some very interesting looking birds, Southern Ground Hornbills.  They were very large.  At 3-4 feet long, they are the largest of the hornbills.  Even more incredible, at least to me, was their typical lifespan of 50-60 years.

Southern Ground Hornbill

The birds are carnivores and forage for reptiles, frogs, snails, insects and mammals up to the size of rabbits.  They are known to dig through dung looking for beetles, which is what the bird below appears to be doing.

Foraging for beetles

Hot Springs.  A little more than half way down the lake we stopped to check out some hot springs.  They were near the water's edge at the bottom of some steep stairs.  For some reason I did not think to take a picture looking back at the stairs, but I did find the picture below.

Stairs down to the hot springs [https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCA15Z3]  The water was so high when we were there, I am not sure if I could have gotten back this far to take a similar picture.

As it turns out the hot springs happens to be a geocache, GCA15Z3 Lake Manyara Hot Spring at Maji Moto Ndogo.

It was easy to spot the spring, which was right next to the stairs. There was not a lot of water coming out, but it was very colorful.

Hot spring at the base of the stairs flowing down the beach towards the lake.

I don't know if the colors were due to minerals or, like in Yellowstone NP, due to bacteria that produce various carotenoids to survive the higher temperatures and bright sunlight.  Whatever the reason, the colors were impressive.

Closer view of the hot spring showing green, yellow, and some orange. 

 There was even a dragonfly on one of the rocks in the middle of the spring water.

female Banded Groundling

There was a second hot spring on the opposite side of the stairs.  It had more water, but was less colorful.  I took a chance and put my hand in the water close to where it flowed into the lake.  It was warm, but certainly not scalding hot.

Fazal checking out the spring water flowing into the lake.  Note the lone pelican in the distance.

Manyara's Water Birds.  From the shoreline we could see a lone pelican floating in the distance.  Unfortunately this was the dry season.  During the wet season the lake is home to tens of thousands of flamingos and pelicans.  

As recent as 1991 the number of birds was much higher, in the millions.  That year's official count was 1,900,000 Lesser Flamingo, 40,000 Greater Flamingo, and 200,000 Great white pelican.

a lonesome pelican

The Frog decided not to risk going down the steep stairs to the hot springs with his bad knee.  That gave him a chance to photograph some of the birds near the vehicle, including a beautiful Little Bee Eater.

Little Bee Eater

Lunch with more birds.  By now it was after 2, way past our normal lunch time.  However there was a fantastic picnic site with pavilions just beyond the hot springs.  We relaxed while digging into our box lunches.

Topo with geocache,GCA15Z3 Lake Manyara Hot Spring at Maji Moto Ndogo, on the right.  Also shown is the picnic site just south of the geocache.  The map shows a boardwalk over the water from the picnic site, but it had been washed away by earlier flooding and was no longer there.

As with all these picnic sites, there were birds that showed up hoping for a hand out or at least a few dropped crumbs.  I took a picture of the bird shown below.  I assumed it was some type of wren, given its coloring and erect tail.  I was surprised to find out later it is a type of robin.

White-browed Scrub Robin

Rural Tanzania.  After a restful lunch we set off for Maramboi Tented Camp, which is on the east side of Lake Manyara.  Our route, as shown on the map below, would take us around the southern end of lake.   

This route was interesting because relatively few safari vehicles venture to the far southern end of the park and therefore almost no safari vehicles travel this rural part of the country.  It was obvious by the reaction of the people we saw.  The adults tended to stop what they were doing and watch us pass by.  Small children almost unanimously smiled and waved.

Southern end of Lake Manyara with gps track for the afternoon of Day 10

We saw various people with their animals, including the boy below with his goats.  I should note he and the goats were in the middle of the road until we came.  There was very very little traffic.

 

Later there were cows.

Cows along the road.

However it was the variety of ways to transport goods that was particularly interesting.  There were the usual motorcycles, including some with three wheels.

There was an ox driven wagon.

Ox driven wagon

The most interesting was probably one man carrying what looked to be a load of t-shirts on his back.

Is that a load of t-shirts on his back?  To the left of the man you can also see the growing crack in the windshield.  (More on that later.)

We stopped briefly when we saw a lot of activity in one of the fields.  It turns out they were harvesting sugar cane.  A woman came over and talked to Fazal.  She was the mayor of the local town.  She said we could join in and offered to allow us to keep whatever we cut.  We declined, but she did leave a stalk of the cut sugar cane with Fazal.

Workers cutting sugar cane and piling the stalks into the wagon.

While we were watching the workers in the field, a large group of children in their school uniforms appeared on the road.  According to the clock on the dash it was just after 4.  Apparently they had just gotten out of school and were headed towards town.  They are walking around one of the trailers already filled with sugar cane.

Children walking home from school

What's up with the windshield?  As can be seen in the blow-up of the man with the t-shirts, there was a sizable crack in the windshield and it was growing.  I am not sure when it first appeared.  I could barely see it extending from the bottom to just above the windshield wiper in a picture as we were entering Olduvai Gorge.  That would have been before Ngorongoro Crater.

Crack in the windshield

The crack came not from a thrown rock, but from the sideways torque on the vehicle as we navigated over the rough roads.  The safari vehicle was practically new and in great shape, but it is obvious this kind of driving takes a toll.  It is why Africa Dream Safaris replaces their vehicles after only about 3 years.  In addition, Fazal said one of his tasks after the safari would be to spend most or all of a day going over the vehicle and checking for any needed repairs.  For example, he would need to tighten all of the screws holding down the seats because they tend to become loose with driving on the rough roads.

We are happy to report that the windshield was still in one piece when Fazal dropped us at the airport on the final day.

Maramboi Tented Lodge.  We arrived at Maramboi Tented Lodge about 5.  The rooms had canvas walls, at least on the sides, but everything was on a wooden platform.

Our room.

There was lots of room with all of the appropriate amenities such as indoor plumbing.

There was even a nice patio. However, due to the high level of Lake Manyara, there was water everywhere.  It was obvious they had had to raise some of the walkways around the camp due to the high water.

Patio outside our room

We settled in to relax, then had a great dinner.  Tomorrow we visit nearby Tarangire NP.