Lake Manyara

Last Friday our safari began. We booked through a local company called Bushman Safari's who we have heard good things about and we were not disappointed. They picked us up in a beastly safari land rover like the one's you see on discovery channel specials. We were driven first to our campsite by a man called Godwind, and our cook's name, in all seriousness, was Good Luck.

The first animal we saw was a giraffe on the side of the highway. Godwind stopped so we could look and told us is was a Massi Giraffe. Megan asked if it was a boy or girl and Godwind said it was a male. Megan then asked how he knew, to which Godwind replied "because I can see his balls." Poor Megan turned a nice shade of red and the rest of us cracked up for about two solid minutes.

Once at the campsite, which was behind a very nice hotel lodge with a pool, we met our park driver Eric who has been driving safari's for seven years since he graduated Safari College. From what I can tell Safari College is like a trade school or two year degree. There have been several CCS volunteers at a safari college in Moshi actually.

Our first Park was Lake Manyara, with the entrance just a mile or so down the road from our campsite. Almost before we were in the park we came across a group of baboons on the side of the road. They were on both sides of us and in the tree above us; they were small and grey and seemed completely not bothered by us. Eric pointed out the alpha male on our left side who was chasing a female who was in heat. When we asked Eric why the animals were not afraid of the cars he said that the vehicles don't scare most animals, but if we were to get out they would go running.

The next animal we saw I almost missed at first. While we were all looking around at the African wilderness Eric was able to spot a pair of Dik Dik on the side of the road. If you don't know what a Dik Dik is, imagine a small deer, like baby small, with huge black eye's. They pair off for life and if you see one the other is probably not far behind, and the male has tiny little horns. Basically, imagine the cutest animal you can think of and put it in the African bush. How they survive in a land full of lions and cheetahs I have no idea.

Next up was something a bit more dramatic, as we turned a corner in the corner around some bushes and Joe said, "there's elephants in the road!" I didn't really think we would just run smack into elephants like that but in fact that is almost exactly what happened. A small group with a couple kids as big as horses, their mothers and a large bull elephant were casually munching on leafs and grass on the roadside. We watched them from no more than thirty feet for several minutes before they wondered off into the bush.

As we got closer to the lake the jungle thinned out until the landscape became a flat grassland for maybe a mile or two. Out in the fields of yellow grass was a group of 6 giraffes, spaced out, and just standing facing the lowering sun behind us. I must say, even though I have seen pictures of giraffes many times before, they are amazingly odd looking creatures. They seem almost alien. Off in the distance behind the giraffes we also saw a small heard of zebras, but they were too far away to get a good look.

Later, in a small pond we found a group hippo's lounging and surrounded by several large flocks of birds of various colors. They splashed and yawned their huge mouth's wide open, and though we were not extremely close it was easy to see that this was an animal you don't want to mess with.

The sun was starting to set and we headed back toward the park entrance, but on the way we still saw a family of warthogs and crossed path's with the group of giraffes again as they moved into the jungle.

Really the only thing we didn't get a look at at the Lake were any big cats. They are rare to see in Lake Manyara park, but we did see a kill that a leopard had left up in a tree, and Eric was able to spot the tracks of a large cat in the dirt road. We followed them for a short distance, but lost them in the jungle. The big cats are more common in other parks, so it wasn't a big deal.

When we got back we had a big dinner that Good Luck had prepared for us and then quickly went to bed, our day in Ngorongoro the next day was starting at 7am and we needed sleep. It's amazing just how tiring it is to stand up through a hole in a moving land rover for several hours. But even though it is easier to sit, standing is way more fun. You feel the wind on your face and have to be careful your hat doesn't blow away, and you really feel like your in the environment.