Lake Manyara in Tanzania is a beautiful place that runs for 50 kilometers along the base of the rusty-gold 600-meter-high Rift Valley escarpment. Ernest Hemingway called the area “the loveliest I had seen in Africa”
The small game-viewing loop through Manyara is like a miniature version of a tour in Tanzania.
From the entrance gate, the road winds through a large area of lush groundwater forest that looks like a jungle. Here, hundreds of baboons lounge nonchalantly on the side of the road, blue monkeys run quickly between ancient mahogany trees, small bushbuck walk cautiously through the shadows, and huge forest hornbills honk loudly in the high canopy.
The grassy floodplain and its expansive views eastward, across the alkaline lake, to the jagged blue volcanic peaks that rise above the infinite Maasai Steppes contrast with the forest’s intimacy. On these grassy expanses, large herds of buffalo, wildebeest, and zebra coexist with giraffes, some of which are so darkly colored that they appear black from a distance.
Manyara’s legendary tree-climbing leopards and impressively tusked elephants favor a narrow band of acacia woodland inland of the floodplain. While squadrons of banded mongooses dart between the acacias, a small Kirk’s dik-dik forages in their shelter. In the extreme south of the park, klipspringer pairs are frequently observed silhouetted on the rocks above a field of boiling hot springs that froth and steam along the lakeshore.
Manyara is a great place to start learning about the birds of Tanzania. There are more than 400 species known, and even a first-time visitor to Africa could probably see 100 of them in a single day. There are a lot of things to see, like thousands of pink flamingos on their constant journey and other big waterbirds like pelicans, cormorants, and storks.
About Lake Manyara National Park:
The Park is 330 square kilometers (127 square miles) in size, and when the lake is full, it can cover up to 200 square kilometers (77 square miles).
Where:
In the north of Tanzania. The main gate is 126 km (80 miles) west of Arusha, along a newly paved road. It is close to the town of Mto wa Mbu, which has people from many different ethnic groups.
