Lake Manyara (skip the text and just see the pictures)

Thursday 29-Dec-2005

When we emerged from our tent and discovered animals tracks everywhere! Some had hooves and some clearly had paws. We later learned that the sounds we had heard in the middle of the night were a hyena.

Not wanting to tempt the Gods, I had a light breakfast of toast and we left Kikoti around 7am. It took about an hour to drive back through Tarangire, and along the way we saw some lions napping on a cool rocky outcropping. We also saw the usual - giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, elephants, gazelles, etc.

It was quite a relief to be back on a somewhat paved road. Andy slept most of the way, until we reached the village of Mto Wa Mbu right before Lake Manyara. The landscape changed to a lush, dense, tropical forest of banana trees and swaying palms. The main road had an unusual method for slowing traffic (which made us realize that we hadn't seen a stop light or stop sign since Nairobi, and we couldn't remember if we'd even seen one there - roundabouts for sure, but we couldn't remember traffic signals). About every 1/8th of a mile there'd be a series divots followed by a speed bump/hump - pretty much brings you to a full stop. Mto We Mbu was a pretty bustling little village - lots of women dressed in bright clothing, people carrying jugs or water or bundles on their heads, shops selling lumber, signs asking tourists to "buy our t-shirts or stop to give us advice", fabric shops, and people herding goats, cattle, and donkeys. Along the side of the road, in the shade of the trees, people sold fruits and vegetables - more bananas than I have seen in my entire life.

Lake Manyara National Park is quite small, and most of the lake is actually dried up because of the drought. About a minute into the park we saw a blue (sykes) monkey, vervet monkeys, and baboons. Because of the lush, dense forest, the animals seemed a lot closer than in Amboseli and Tarangire. We saw dozens and dozens of elephants, with babies, some even using their trunks to splash water on themselves. I checked the thermometer on my backpack and it was 102.

We also had a neat giraffe experience - at least 10 of them with several babies. We were surprised how graceful they are when they run - they look almost slow motion. Around noon we stopped for lunch. The picnic area seemed like it might have been at the edge of the lake at one point, but was now at the edge of a vast expanse of dryness. This was also the scariest boxed lunch yet because it included a cheese and mayonnaise sandwich (and no, it wasn't kept in a cooler all morning). Because it was so hot, we decided to head towards the lodge and call it an early day.

We traveled back through the park, seeing the same types of animals we'd seen on the way in. Lake Manyara sure seemed to have a lot of animals for such a small park - or maybe because it was a small park it was easier to see the animals - or maybe we had adjusted our expectations to meet Tarangire - who knows, but it was a nice few hours.

Once out of the park, we traveled back through the village of Mto WA Mbu, past seemingly thousands of bananas, and over the speed divots/bump/humps. We turned onto a dusty dirt side road and traveled for about 15 minutes, passing Maasai dwellings and Maasai herding cattle. We then turned onto a dustier, bumpier dirt path and proceeded for another 10 minutes or so. We were close to the base of the "Great Rift Escarpment" (cliffs) that surrounds one side of Lake Manyara, so it couldn't be that much farther. I began to try to remember if I'd seen this place on the internet, or if I had somehow overlooked the fact that we were doing some sort of Maasai village homestay program.

But then we trucked up a small hill and arrived at the oasis of E Unoto Retreat ("Eunoto" is an important Maasai ceremony when the senior warriors select their wives and become junior elders). The lodge is owned by a Texan and employs many Maasai from nearby villages. Though not as remote as Kikoti, this definitely qualified as remote. We were introduced to Kisioki, a Maasai man who would be our personal butler, and assigned room "M". Easy enough to remember, although we couldn't remember Kisioski's name and had to ask him several times. Didn't help that we'd just come from Kikoti.

Two Maasai took our bags (though Andy insisted on keeping the camera bag) and Kisioki led us to our room. Up a hill. and then up another hill. and then a final hill. And it was still well over 100. When we finally reached the room we were both wishing for room "A". Our bungalow was lovely though - two queen size beds with white down linens surrounded by a mossie-net canopy and French doors opening to a terrace with a beautiful view of the escarpment, Lake Miwaleni, groves of palm trees, and monkeys playing nearby. There was on-demand hot water, but electricity was only available from 6-10pm and 6-10am.

It was a good 5 degrees warmer inside, with no breeze, so we decided to return to the main lodge area. We met Jaison in the bar, and he and Andy had some Tuskers and I slurped down two giant bottles of cold water. There was a local guy at the bar wearing a USC hat, so I mentioned something about the Rose Bowl. He was pretty confused - turns out he got the hat from a tourist, and had no idea what "USC" meant.

We spent the afternoon by the pool, Kisioki refilling our drinks without us even asking and bringing us bowls of popcorn. The pool was freezing (and the water was a little sketchy-looking) but it was perfect relief from the heat. We trekked back uphill to the room around 4. Andy fell asleep and I took a cold shower to try to cool off. While drying off I realized that the towels were kind of dirty, and then I realized that the dirt was coming off of ME! Come to think of it, with all of the dust there, how on earth did they keep the white linens so sparklingly clean??

Andy woke up in pretty poor shape, and had, among other things,...the symptoms that I experienced at Tarangire. Mentally recapping the day I figured it was heat exhaustion - toast + no lunch + beer + popcorn + a lot of sun. He asked for some cold water, and told me to check if there was "a somewhat legitimate doctor" nearby. Uh oh... It was at this time that I was trying to remember where I'd put those Flying Doctors memberships that they gave us as part of our trip package. We went down to the main lodge area in search of a shady spot with a nice cross breeze. In the next two hours he drank 6 bottles of water, 3 cokes, and some tea. Kisioki and the manager kept checking on him, and was doing much better in no time. We were mosquito-bait sitting by the pool at dusk, so I trekked up to the bungalow to get the repellent. Since the electricity was on, I plugged in the camera battery chargers, but there were only two outlets so I brought the p-2000 with me and charged it in the bar.

Dinner began at 7:30 - a buffet was set up in one of the thatched structures and candlelit tables we in to other two thatched structures. The food presentation was great, but the meat was suspiciously chewy so we stuck with noodles - and for the first time I skipped the soup! Boullabaise was entirely too risky :) This trip was turning into a carbohydrate overdose - the East Beach Diet perhaps. Kisioki kept checking on Andy, who was by now back to normal, and said that if he was too weak to walk up the hill to our bungalow that they had a golf cart. The manager also stopped by to say that he'd alerted the night security folks that Andy wasn't feeling well (o...k...). Andy declined the golf cart invitation.

When we returned to the bungalow it was still above 90 degrees. We decided to leave the front door open to try to get a cross breeze. For security purposes, I moved the camera bag and backpack to the floor near the bed and put a chair in the front door. Huh?? Not sure what we were thinking.

Friday 30-DEC-2005

I don't think either of us slept much that night. I remember waking up when I heard someone near the front door (might have been "night security") and another time when I heard loud barking baboons. It was already 85 degrees at 7:30am.

After breakfast, Dramamine, malaria meds, and anitbiotics, we paid our bar tab ($25 due to dehydration water and coke binge) and met Jaison at 9.

(click any image to see larger version)

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