Today I am in Lake Manyara, a two hour drive from Arusha in Tanzania. This is our first trip to Africa and promises to be fascinating. Our travels yesterday saw us leave Arusha and drive over the Masai Steppe to Lake Manyara which is a part of the Great Rift Valley that stretches from Jordan to South Africa. Our Lodge sits on the escarpment of the Valley and looks down over the Lake and the valley.
The drive to get here was interesting particularly as we traversed the Masai Steppe, here we saw the traditional small round homes of the Masai, many small herds of cattle, usually with one Masai herder, small towns, children playing, the colorful dress of the people, the fabrics and colors are really quite amazing.
After arriving at our lodge we headed for our first game drive in Lake Manyara National park. Here we saw several kinds of monkeys, many troops of baboons, herds of wildebeest, cape buffalo, a few warhogs, elephants grazing, admittedly only two but it is exceptional to be driving along the track and suddenly come upon elephants grazing. We were on the hunt for hippo's as well but the track was too muddy for us to be able to get to them. Instead we had to be content with Zebra's grazing, another magical moment.
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