Continuing on in Lake Manyara National Park on Tuesday, March 20…

Our Land Cruiser had roof panels that detached, opening the top of the vehicle and allowing the passengers to stand up to have an unobstructed view in all directions. After leaving the elephants behind, we cruised slowly along the dirt roadways through some heavy trees and brush with occasional open grassy areas. The four of us were scanning in all directions for wildlife or anything of interest. Suddenly Les said sharply, "Stop! Stop!" Then, "Back up about 20 feet!"

Mrosso responded immediately and Les pointed to an opening on the left as we backed up past some bushes. There, about 40-50 yards from the road, were two cat-like animals walking directly away from us, side by side. "Lions!" said Les. But Carol had her binoculars on them quickly and said, "No. They have spots on them and don't look like lions!" Linda, watching through her binoculars, breathed, "Leopards!" I finally acquired them through my binoculars for just long enough to see what they were, then grabbed for the camera. Too late! They disappeared into the brush and were gone.

Those were the only leopards we saw on the entire trip, and we couldn't get a picture! But at least we saw them and identified them positively. That set the tone for the next few days -- by the end of two days of game viewing we had seen all of the "Big Five" (lions, leopards, elephants, rhino and buffalo) and lots more!

We drove ahead slowly, and soon saw impala off to the right and our first warthogs to the left. Before long we spotted giraffes and zebras. As we approached the lake itself, the trees and brush gave way to open land for several hundred yards back from the water's edge. In the distance, in the water, were some small brown spots that would disappear for a while and then reappear. "Hippos," Mrosso told us. All that you could see were their ears, eyes and the tips of their noses when they came up for a breath.

 
Impalas in the shade. On the right a warthog, shiny from rolling in the mud.

 
Giraffe in a clearing, with the escarpment in the background. At right, a zebra showing the slimming effect of horizontal stripes.

Mrosso was amazing, identifying every bird we saw, then showing us a picture of it in his reference book. I don't think he missed any! He was also amazing in his ability to spot animals or birds or items of interest. At one point he hit the brakes harder than usual and came to a sudden stop. We quickly looked all around to find what he had seen, and finally asked him what it was. He pointed straight down to the road beside the vehicle where he had seen and avoided hitting a 6 inch terrapin moseying along. We HAD to take its picture, especially for Amy! The drive continued, alternating between trees and dense undergrowth to relatively open country. Lake Manyara is famous for its population of African tree-climbing lions, so we diligently looked in every tree we passed trying to spot one or more -- no luck. In those trees we saw several unique birds, some monkeys, and one elephant. All right, the elephant wasn't exactly in the tree; he was eating the tree!

 
African Gray Hornbill. At right, a Long-crested Eagle, the only crested eagle in Africa.

 
Marabou Stork; a big, ugly, carrion eating bird. A Vervet Monkey, who could have chosen a more comfortable seat!

 
A Vervet in a tree. At right, an elephant eating what looks like a Mesquite tree (probably a small acacia).

Several of our driver/guides told us how destructive elephants are. They eat a tremendous amount of vegetation daily, stripping bark off of tree limbs and sometimes pushing over the whole tree because, well, just because they can! The elephant in the picture above was eating the leaves, branches and thorns, munching away happily as we took his picture. We could hear him crunching up his meal from far down the road.

 
"Anybody want to race?" At right a giraffe who looks like he is thinking, "Hmmmph! Tourists!"
That's kind of the "long and short" of our drive through Lake Manyara Park!

It was almost noon when we drove out of the Lake Manyara Park and headed toward Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area a little further West. The day had become sunny and fairly hot. As we climbed up the escarpment from the level of the lake, probably about 800 to 1,000 feet in elevation change, we passed an immense Baobab tree and paused to take a picture of it.


That is one BIG tree!

We then continued down what is the major highway in this part of Tanzania. This is the only road leading from Arusha, the capital city, to the Serengeti, the main tourist attraction. Our driver made it clear that this was NOT a "road," this was a "highway!" We soon learned that a "road" is a track through the fields and brush where you can actually discern the tracks of BOTH the left and right wheels of the vehicle that last passed that way.


The view standing up through the open top of the Land Cruiser.

The picture above shows the quality of this major highway! Most of the countries we visited had been British colonies, so you drive on the left (wrong) side of the road! (That's also why most of the countries use "shillings" as their currency!) The air was warm but pleasant as we passed by hand-cultivated fields of corn and other vegetables. We never saw a tractor, or even a mule or an ox pulling a plow. All of the tilling was done by hand with a hoe or similar implement. The countryside was green and lush, for the last few months of "dry" season had seen more rains than normal.

 
View along the "main highway" from Lake Manyara National Park to the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area.

The houses we saw were frequently mad of mud and sticks, but almost as frequently the buildings and houses were made of mud bricks. We passed a number of "brickyards" (like the one pictured below) in every African country we visited. The people would simply dig the clay out of the ground, form it into bricks and let it dry in the sun. In some places they formed the mud bricks into ovens and lit a fire in the oven to "fire" the bricks and harden them.


A typical African brickyard, in rural Tanzania.

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