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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. |
TANZANIA