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Lake Manyara National Park - Tanzania
Lake Manyara with giraffe in the foreground and
flamingoes in the distant background |
Lake Manyara National Park is famous for it's lions with
a peculiar habit of climbing trees |
Elephants wallowing in Lake Manyara National Park |
Lake Manyara National Park is 330 sq km (127 sq miles), of which up to 200 sq km (77
sq miles) is lake when water levels are high.
Lake Manyara National Park's main gate lies 2 hours (126km/80 miles) west
of Arusha along a newly surfaced road, close to the ethnically
diverse market town of Mto-wa-Mbu (river of mosquitoes).
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 waterbirds such as pelicans, cormorants and storks.
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