|
Lake Manyara National Park
Stretching for 50km along the base of the
rusty-gold 600-metre high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara is a
scenic gem, with a setting extolled by Ernest Hemingway as “the
loveliest I had seen in Africa”.
The compact game-viewing circuit through Manyara
offers a virtual microcosm of the Tanzanian safari experience.
From the entrance gate, the road winds through
an expanse of lush jungle-like groundwater forest where
hundred-strong baboon troops lounge nonchalantly along the roadside,
blue monkeys scamper nimbly between the ancient mahogany trees,
dainty bushbuck tread warily through the shadows, and outsized
forest hornbills honk cacophonously in the high canopy.
Contrasting with the intimacy of the forest is
the grassy floodplain and its expansive views eastward, across the
alkaline lake, to the jagged blue volcanic peaks that rise from the
endless Maasai Steppes. Large buffalo, wildebeest and zebra herds
congregate on these grassy plains, as do giraffes – some so dark in
coloration that they appear to be black from a distance.
Inland of the floodplain, a narrow belt of
acacia woodland is the favoured haunt of Manyara’s legendary
tree-climbing lions and impressively tusked elephants. Squadrons of
banded mongoose dart between the acacias, while the diminutive
Kirk’s dik-dik forages in their shade. Pairs of klipspringer are
often seen silhouetted on the rocks above a field of searing hot
springs that steams and bubbles adjacent to the lakeshore in the far
south of the park.
Manyara provides the perfect introduction to
Tanzania’s birdlife. More than 400 species have been recorded, and
even a first-time visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to
observe 100 of these in one day. Highlights include thousands of
pink-hued flamingos on their perpetual migration, as well as other
large waterbirds such as pelicans, cormorants and storks.
|
