From the Observation Deck

Our second day of the Tanzania and Kenya safari started with a drive through Arusha where they have been holding the tribunals for the Rwanda genocide that happened back in 1994. There were a lot of interesting scenes through the town and dad and I had to look at a map after being told as we were going around a round-a-bout, that we were now at the halfway point between Cairo, Egypt and Cape Town, South Africa. It was a constant astonishment to us how large Africa is. I’m still not convinced that the continental U.S. can fit into Africa four times. The maps are skewed for sure.

Well, I mentioned the “road” to Lake Manyara in my last post so I’ll start this post with our arrival in the Lake Manyara area which was pretty much due west of Arusha and not very far in miles but high on the sore bottom scale. Again—working the “core” was very healthy on this trip (holding on to the sides of the jeep to steady yourself).

Before we got to the park we drove through a very interesting town. The town was created by the first President of Tanzania as a unification project. The Tanzania population is made up of 120 different tribes. The President wanted to bring the tribes together so he pulled in representatives from all 120 tribes to live in the town of Mto Wa Mbu. Had he a better PR team, they would have picked a better name to bring in the tourists. Mto Wa Mbu translates into Mosquito River. (Hey, I want to go there!) But I will say their bananas tasted pretty good and  they do have a web site! Eric, our tour director gave us a special sweet, orange looking banana that was quite good. Okay, so on to the National Park and our first game drive.

As the jeep trekked slowly through the forest-lined dusty road, we kept our eyes peeled on the trees. A very unique tree grows only this area, called the Baobab, which to me looked like the tree of life in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It was cool looking. They also had a cool looking “sausage” tree. Aptly named and you can see why in the photo below.

Anywho, the tops of the jeep were off so we could stand up and look out over the roof for a great 360 degree view. Monkeys were the first on the list to be spotted. A few Blue monkeys swinging in the tree led to a spotting of a troop of baboons hanging out on a creek bed. They seemed a little shy and ambled away slowly. We later saw a couple more of the Blue monkeys running across the plain (I’m chuckling at the memory of the bouncing little guy).

Other sightings included some kind of cool stork (I failed to write down the name at the time) and her young one sitting atop a tree, some more monkeys and then a large field filled with baboons—big and tiny—eating, grooming, and playing. They sit on their behinds and pick out seeds (or something yummy) from the grassy areas and leaves on small bushes. The little babies were hanging on to their mamas either by sitting on their backs as the mom’s walked on all fours or by clinging to their bellies underneath. Some of the little ones were only about a month old. The teenagers were swinging and laughing in the clump of trees before a bunch of them decided they didn’t want to be entertainment for us anymore and moseyed on across the road and off to another hangout. That was a fun highlight of the animal viewing during this drive. Seriously, how can you not have fun watching baboons and monkeys running around?

We continued on to the hippo pool and I saw my first hippopotamus. Lots of them actually—baking in the hot sun on the banks near a pool of water. Usually they are in the water but were taking a sun break. They have very sensitive skin and it will dry up if they cook too long. More on them later—they became a fun show to watch and I felt a kindred spirit to these animals who love to just float in the water all day long.

So, as we moved around the park we had wonderful views of the Great Rift Valley escarpment. The Great Rift Valley stretches for long miles along Africa’s east coast. Its undulating hills and well, valley, were caused by the tectonic plates crashing against each other. Many, many thousands of years later its home to lots of wildlife including the awesome Zebras and Giraffe we spotted a little ways from the hippos. More on them later as well. Our first day of game driving was exciting but we were going to see lots more than that and much closer as well.

On up the mountain we ate a lovely lunch and made our way up through the Ngorongoro Conservation Park. Halfway to our hotel I was startled when all of the sudden a very large Cape Breton buffalo appeared just a foot from my window. One shriek later and he and his buddies fled into the tropical forest that surrounded the road.

Our hotel sat on the rim of the crater overlooking the plains at a very high elevation—it was actually chilly there—and had magnificent views. The animals roamed around the hotel and a few calls in the night served as a reminder that the animals are very active at night. Upon our arrival at the hotel we were greeted by some Masai warriors and women who sang and danced for us. I’ll talk more about the Masai later, but suffice it to say the bar had been raised again for sure.

Stay tuned for a trip around a very cool crater filled with cool animals, birds, flowers , and trees.

P.S. The headline of this post was inspired by our tour director, Eric, who started off each day of our group meetings/outings with a quote or story related to Africa. My favorite was the children’s book, Giraffe’s Can’t Dance, which I brought home for my favorite 4-year old neighbor!

The Great Rift Valley escarpment. Beautiful scenery, endless sky.

Baby baboon catching a ride on mama’s back.

The teenagers of the baboon troop were swinging in the trees and having a great time.

Yo, I pledge allegience to the troop. And I’ll pick some nuts in a minute.

A stork by any name that I can’t remember sits atop a tree in Lake Manyara Park in Tanzania

A sausage tree. What else would you call something with branches hanging like this?

Baobab tree in Lake Manyara Park, Tanzania

Zebra looks like he’s playing but he’s really trying to kill the bugs that are biting him.

Run Blue Monkey, run!