Published on Jun, 2019
We were a group of 16 consisting of 3 teachers and 13 students from the US who had come to Tanzania for an exchange program and decided to go for a day trip to Lake Manyara in the Rift-Valley.
We were picked from Mt Meru hotel in 3 jeeps by guides Godson, Benedict and Bryson who drove us to Lake Manyara National Park in the south of Arusha. In my Jeep we had Godson and he was absolutely amazing. He is a good driver and also very knowledgeable about the animals, trees, birds and generally a very likeable person. We drove as a convoy making some few stops along the way to enjoy the beautiful scenery and also take pictures with groups of Masai Morans that we found along the way. After a 2 hrs drive we reached the park gate where we took about 20 minutes to get processed. There were a a few families of baboons at the gate.
The park is action packed,from entrance you drive through a deep forest which had a few monkeys, then as huge trees cleared we encountered huge herds of elephants grazing grazing on the each side of the road. Some were very huge and came close to the jeeps. Further down as we approached the shoreline there were herds of Zebras, giraffes, warthogs antelopes and a few wildebeest. We enjoyed our packed lunch in a picnic site close to the hippo pool watch point. After lunch we went to the hippo point though the hippos were not very visible as were a bit far and the pool muddy. However we also got to see a lot of pelicans and other water birds. On our way back we also encountered a pride of lions in a clearing close to the road.
It was a lovely day where we saw so much and I will definitely come back for a longer safari to other parks.