"Lake Manyara National Park " a Lake Manyara National Park Travel Page by PeteG

Lake Manyara is positioned right at the base of the African Rift Valley Wall. When you get into clearings you can really see the size of the wall and it is so impressive to look at.

My photo's do not really do it justice, but I hope you get a feeling of scale with this family of giraffe in the foreground.

It is a great place to start off your safari. Compared with Serengeti etc it is much smaller in size, but what it lacks in area it more than makes up for in wildlife. Within the first ten minutes of entering the park we had encountered several troops of baboons, lots of giraffes quite a few elephants.

The other wildlife we saw include hippo, flamingo, pelican, and banded mongoose. At the Lake itself there are so many different variety of bids. A great place for birdwatching if that is your thing

The thing that stuck me about the elephants in the park was their indifference to people. They just went about their business as if we were not there which re-assured me we were in a "zoo" environment.

As they love dusting themselves down they are exactly the same colour as the earth!

Manyara was our first stop on safari in Tanzania and the first opportunity to get close up to the wildlife.

It is a beautiful park and there are miles and miles forested and open areas to explore, although we only spent a day there.

Because the first mile or so of the park is heavily wooded, the baboons love it and jump from tree to tree above your head, or just sit in the road "looking moody". They are fantastic to watch leaping from branch to branch.

Lake Manyara is a great point to stop on route to the Serengeti, and Ngorongoro.

Make sure you stop in Karatu on the way as well.