Safari Day 1: Lake Manyara National Park

It was a relief to have the hiking portion of the trip done and move onto the safari. I didn't quite know what to expect. I  had not done any research on the safari part of the trip I just wanted to get through the hike. Our safari guide picked us up early in the morning because there was a 3-4 hour drive from our hotel in Moshi to get to Lake Manyara. The drive was long and I slept for a good chunk of it. My body was still recovering from the hike. Also the beds in Africa are so hard. I usually slept great for 5 hours but then I couldn't sleep anymore. Our guide was Ebenezer. He was very knowledgeable on all things Africa and Tanzania so he answered so many questions and taught us a lot about their culture while we drove. I got excited about the safari as soon as I saw our safari car. It was the coolest Toyota Land Cruiser. They get them to Africa and then modify them to make them safari ready. It is so fun.

Lake Manyara is famous for it's birds and tree climbing lions. We did not see the lions but there were lots of birds. The park was way different than I anticipated. There was dense brush and it was green. It was very different than the picture of Africa I had in my mind. The dense brush made it harder to spot animals. 

The first thing that we saw were Baboons. There are so many Baboons in Africa. 

We drove out to the lake. It was huge! They had a wet winter and so the lake was flooding. Some of the normal roads were closed because they were covered in water. We got to see some birds and watch some Hippos. The hippos were too far away to get a good picture.

I loved that we could stand up in the car once we got inside the parks. We would stop to get all the paperwork figured out and then our guide would lift up the roof. We could stand or sit. It was nice to have the option. I did a lot of standing while holding on for my life. The roads were all dirt and it was a bumpy ride.

We saw giraffes and zebras but they were too far away for a good picture. Our guide promised us we would see them at the other parks up close. We ended the day by watching two elephants play in the water. I love elephants. It was pure magic.

The trees in Africa are so different and cool. I took lots of pictures of them. Here are a couple from Lake Manyara.

It was a good first day but I didn't feel like we saw a ton. We left the park and headed to our lodge. The safari lodge we stayed in was so nice. The food was good and buffet style so we could find things we liked. The shower was amazing. They had a nice pool, which we didn't use. The rooms are all in these cute little huts. It was a fun place.

We got to stay here two nights which was super nice. Bedtime is early on safari because they want you up early to go find the animals. It was so funny. We woke up earlier on the safari then we did on the hike!