Manyara National Park, Tanzania (Days 1-3)

Monkeyhouse goes (back) to Africa!

We love to travel. We love to explore new places. But we loved Africa so much after visiting in 2017 that we decided to go back. This trip includes one week in Tanzania & Kenya, specifically to view the Serengeti and “the great migration” plus one week in South Africa. Two full weeks of safari’s – can’t wait to see what new cool stuff we see.

Days 1-3: Getting There & Manyara National Park 

Travel days are always a blur. We left Chicago and our precious Olly at 6am on a Friday, spent a few hours in Ethiopia, flew a few more hours, somewhere along the way we lost 8 hours, and we landed at Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania early afternoon local time. 

Traveling in style

Djabouti - because it is funny

People gave us hard time for flying Ethiopian Air - it was amazing service on a brand new plane!

I rarely can sleep on flights and our flights were mostly during daylight hours, so by the time we landed it was early afternoon but felt like 6am. We had been awake for about 24 hours. Damon, of course, slept like a baby on the plane for a solid 4 hours. I, on the other hand, am proud to have started and finished Season 1 of Ragnorok, watched the new Netflix Adam Sandler Bar Mitzvah movie, and read half of a John Grisham book. I may be tired, but I’m feeling pretty good my level of airplane productivity. 

Our driver, Amos, was waiting at the airport and got us to our first lodge, Lake Duluti Lodge, in Arusha, Tanzania. Never a dull moment as midway through the drive, police in the road waived us to the side of the road along with all other vehicles. We sat there and waited about 15-20 minutes. At one point, a wedding party came through – half dozen cars with big ribbons tied on, but turns out, that was just coincidence. Eventually, a motorcade with about 10 police cars a standby ambulance and Tanzania’s FEMALE president came rolling through our little two-lane road. We saw the president! Or, the outside of her car, anyways. 

Just before turning into our lodge, we drove through a bustling Saturday market – literally, right through the middle of it. The market is the primary shopping for everyone in the area and everything is sold there – fruits and veges, clothes, piles of shoes. People both on and off motorcycles everywhere. I forgot to take pictures – too tired. 

Lake Duluti Lodge was a super cute lodge, I think (I was deliriously tired by then). 

Damon trying to stay awake for dinner.  Not.

THE Lake Duluti

We showered, did a short walking tour of the grounds, ate a delicious meal outdoors watching the monkeys play in the trees and “get busy” on the lawn, and headed to our room and finally went to sleep at 7:40pm – some 30 hours after we left Chicago. One sleeping pill and 10 ½ hours later, we woke up for our first day of fun. 

Side note: we had hoped to see Mt Kilimanjaro, but unfortunately, it is hidden by clouds most of the time and we did not catch even a glimpse. 

After a quick breakfast, Amos picked us up at 7am in what was to become our home away from home -a rockin’ heavily modified Toyota Land Cruiser, aka “the cruiser”. We drove for about three hours to Manyara National Park for our first safari. On the drive, we learned a lot of history about Tanzania, the 120 tribes that inhabit the country, and their cultures. Some tribes wear traditional clothes (it is illegal not to), some wear jeans and t-shirts; some tribes are known for herding and others for farming. One tribe allows the men to marry multiple wives and they are set up in a little group of huts/houses where each wife and her children reside. One tribe is known as the most honest – they don’t harm animals and they don’t steal – they become security all over Tanzania. 

Maasai huts - 5-6 in a circle - for the wives

Along the side of the road, almost everywhere, you see young Maasai boys herding goats and cows. This tribe measures wealth in cows, so more cows = more prestige. The boys walk the goats and cows to water – potentially as much as 7 miles each way just to find water for the day. 

Cows and goats everywhere

Young boys herding cows and goats

The women are also walking on the side of the road, but they are tasked with carrying back water for the family. The parade of cows and goats was endless. We also learned that there is so little water in the area (we are also in dry season), that the people and animals all drink from the same stagnant ponds – they have become immune to diseases in the water. 

People transporting water everywhere

Many of the trees we passed on the side of the road have white boxes hanging in them – bees! I assume a lot of honey is harvested as they were hanging everywhere. 

Bees in the trees

Other interesting tidbits – the roads are filled with motorcycles, “boda boda” – apparently a very inexpensive way to travel. The motorcycles, according to Amos, are made in China, very inexpensive, and fall apart rather quickly. Honestly, when you see what these little putt putt motorbikes are carrying, it is a wonder they last more than one trip. They are used as inexpensive taxis, so you regularly see two or three people on the bikes. Sometimes two people and a goat in between. Sometimes a chicken or two in between. Sometimes an entire truckload worth of corn somehow tied to the back of a single bike, or one might hold 8-10 water jugs balanced on the back. Color me impressed.  wish I had pictures, but taking pix from a moving car - everything was blurry.  Trust me - goats on a motorcycle are cool.

Carrying maize

Women are always walking

Maasai houses - 5 or 6 in a circle - for the wives

We arrived at Manyara National Park and started looking for animals. 

Made it to Manyara!

Manyara National Park

 

Our first official sighting was two little baboons on the side of the road – how cute! Initially, we were wildly impressed with the baboons, but soon realized that it was baboonapalooza at this park. 

Our first animal sighting!

Baboons everywhere – in the entry area, we were warned not to leave car windows or doors open as they will jump in. I personally witnessed a baboon jump into a cruiser and tear through everything while two Instagrammers were taking pictures of themselves and had left the doors open. Baboons get less cute when they are literally everywhere – and they travel in packs of like 50-100. And the males they sit in the middle of the road and don’t give a sh*t. But the babies riding their mamas back like horses – still kinda cute. 

Baboons take over the road

Baby baboon riding mom bareback

 

The rest of the day was all about the tembo, aka, the elephants. We got our first sneak peek at a shy male hiding in the brush. 

First elephant siting!

Shortly thereafter, we found a family with two babies close to the side of the road and watched them for a bit

Mama and one of the babies

then a few more playing in a dry riverbed, then for the final show – another group with the smallest baby we’ve ever seen – guessing 3 months old. It stayed very close to mom – walking underneath her protected by her belly and legs, or in between two females - and it was really interesting to watch how all of the bigger elephants surrounded the baby so it was always protected from every side. 

Baby elephant

Baby being protected

Teenager playing in the mud

Between elephant sightings, we glimpsed several giraffes in the distance – they were weirdly unmoving and seemed to be staring right at us the whole time! 

The giraffe stare

 Mid-day we had a picnic and enjoyed some time out of the cruiser. According to Amos, there are about 1,000 companies just in Arusha that service this area – every company has an identical Land Cruiser, all outfitted so the top pops up so you can stand and view – without getting eaten. The only way to tell most of the vehicles apart is by the spare tire coverings with company logos – otherwise, almost every vehicle was identical; ours was at least green instead of tan. 

Tire covers were the only thing differentiating cruisers

Today is definitely elephant day! We happened upon another group, including a “5-legged” elephant. Hmm. 

Find the 5th leg.

We saw about 500 more baboons on the way out – they are no longer cute – they are just everywhere! We left the park and drove to our next Lodge – the Ngorongoro Farmhouse, just outside of its famous namesake crater we will be visiting tomorrow. The Farmhouse is an amazing place with acres and acres of coffee bean plants and a monstrous vegetable garden that supplies the kitchen. 

Farmhouse gardens at sunset

A bunch of banana trees and flowers round out the garden. We had enough time to grab complimentary cocktail and snacks before joining a local group of musicians/dancers (participation mandatory) before enjoying a wonderful dinner on the patio. In bed and asleep by about 9:30 – we know how to party. 

My dance skilz.  There is video

There is more video.  This one is better.

Fun fact – The common greeting here is “jambo” or “jambo jambo”. I’m not sur what the difference is, but we just walk around saying jambo to everyone. Also, thank you is “asante” or “asante san” (again, not sure of the difference - maybe “very much”??) There are some words we try to learn quickly, although Damon’s vocab is currently up to about 10 words. It is strange because when the lodge staff greet us, they always say “you’re welcome” before we say thank you”. It is odd, but I guess that is just how it is done here.

Tomorrow:  Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania