Lake Manyara is Tanzania’s bird watching paradise which stretches for 50km along the base of the rusty-gold 600-metre high Rift Valley escarpment; Lake Manyara is a scenic gem, with a setting explained by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I had seen in Africa”. The compact game-viewing circuit through lake Manyara’s ecosystem offers a virtual microcosm of the Tanzanian safari experience.
As you enter the gate of Lake Manyara as part of your Tanzania safari trip destination, the road winds through an expanse of lush jungle-like groundwater forest where hundred-strong baboon troops lounge lazily along the roadside, blue monkeys scamper swiftly between the ancient mahogany trees, dainty bushbuck tread warily through the shadows, and outsized forest hornbills fly clumsily 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 and other grazers and browsers.
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 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 birding safaris. 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 both greater and lesser flamingos on their perpetual migration, as well as other large waterbirds such as pelicans, spoonbills, pipetes, cormorants and storks.
About Lake Manyara National Park
Size: 330 square kilometers, of which up to 200 sq km is part of the lake when water levels are high.
Location: In northern Tanzania. The entrance gate lies 1.5 hours (126km/80 miles) west of Arusha along a newly surfaced road, close to the ethnically diverse market town of Mto wa Mbu.
Getting there
By road, charter or scheduled flight from Arusha, en route to Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.
What to do
Game drives, night game drives, canoeing when the water levels is sufficiently high.
Cultural tours, picnicking, bush lunch/dinner, mountain bike tours, abseiling and forest walks on the escarpment outside the park.
When to go
Dry season (July-October) for large mammals;
Wet season (November-June) for bird watching, the waterfalls and canoeing.
Accommodation
One luxury treehouse-style camp, public bandas and campsites inside the park.
One luxury tented camp and three lodges perched on the Rift Wall outside the park overlooking the lake. Several guesthouses and campsites in nearby Mto wa Mbu.
Adventures Panorama Tours : E-mail: info@adventurepanorama.com Telephone: +254202473085 Mobile Phone Number: +254725881811, +254731616881.
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