Lake Manyara National Park

"This unusual park lies in the shadow of the Great Rift Valley whose reddish brown escarpment wall looms 1,950 feet high (600 metres) on the eastern horizon. Waterfalls spill over the cliff and hot springs bubble to the surface in the south.  It is considered one of the Rift Lakes that stretch like jewels along the escaprment and Ernest Hemingway said it was "the loveliest spot he had ever seen in Africa".  



Much of the park often appears to be in a heat haze created by the soda lake - Lake Manyara. The lake attracts considerable birdlife, and its surrounding terrain contains such a rich mosaic of different habitats that it supports a large number of animals." 
(from GameReserve.com)


Our hotel was on the top of the escarpment so we had to drive down the steep highway to get to the park gate.  

You can see the highway that we've just driven down.

Along the way were the most interesting baobob trees.  

It was the dry season so they were all leafless and totally reminded me of Halloween trees!

They are nicknamed "upside-down trees"!  Some are as old as 1000 years.  When they bloom they have large showy white flowers (which we didn't see) and elephants love the smooth bark and soft pulpy fiber.

The first part of the park is a groundwater forest.  This park is said to be the only national park that is always green.  You can see the size of the trees compared to the safari vehicle!

The road curves through the forest

with lots of Vervet and blue monkeys 

alongside.

Big groups of olive baboons played, cleaned each other and watched as the vehicles passed by.  There were some very young ones that were chasing each other over fallen trees and they were so cute to watch as they flipped upside down, trying to run and still hang on to the tree trunks.

They were always grooming each other.

We also spotted some elephants in the forest.  It took careful watching to spot animals in this park because of the plant growth, unlike the wide open savannahs in other parks.

We left the forest and came out to the lake where hippos were resting in the water.

But it was the giraffes that captured us this time.

There was a big group of them roaming throughout this field 

and standing in the shade of the trees.

It's fascinating to watch them eat and observe how their necks work. 

Sandra kindly shared her zoom lens and I was able to capture some awesome closeups again!

It was wonderful to spend some time watching these gentle giants.  By the end of our trip, Bob declared them to be his favourites of the big 5.

I loved the sign at the park gates.

Another interesting event this afternoon was a long chat that we had at the rest station with a group that had just finished a Kilimanjaro hike the day before!  Bob and Clarence asked lots of questions and got more information about the hike that they would begin in 3 days!