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Friday 10th September
It was nice to finally have a bit of a lie in as the Tanzania tour company Good Earth weren't picking us up till 9. However the sun rises dead on 6.30 here and it isn't a gradual process but happens very quickly, so naturally I woke up when I saw daylight. Waking up in a clean hotel room as opposed to the tented camps in the bush meant I didn't need to check for any bugs before I got out the mosquito net or check under the toilet seat for any hidden spiders! I took a moment to imagine the budget camp we'd be staying in when in the Serengeti. Even though Mark has informed me that the camps are bug proof I can't help but think of cockroaches scurrying along my sleeping bag and spiders crawling into my ear. Not to mention that the guide books have reminded us not to leave food in our tents as bait for hyenas or lions on the night prowl. Great! What are we getting ourselves into! But I tell myself to 'man up' and go and enjoy my last hot shower for 4 days.
After breakfast and repacking our bags for the billionth time, we met Thomas our tour guide and Rama our cook and tent creator. Driving from Arusha to Lake Manyara was fine as most of the road was developed. We love it when we pass through a town and the children run up towards the road to wave 'jambo'. Although, we both feel guilt that we can't give as much as we would like to due to budgeting for the entire trip, waving back still puts a smile on their faces.
We stopped at a snake park which when we left I wished we had never visited! We saw a variety of snakes from deadly to harmless. Our guide was very informative and described the snakes well. Although he told us far more than I wanted to know... The man eating python can kill it's prey by constricting it, then swallowing it whole. It then doesn't need to kill for up to a year as it slowly digests it's catch. Thomas told us he had seen pythons in the Serengeti! Next, we saw the spitting cobra coiled up in the corner of the glass cage. This snake can cleverly aim it's venom so accurately at the eyes as a defence mechanism that it can quickly blind you unless washed with water, milk or urine! Now, here comes the most deadliest snake in the world... The black mamba that can kill 5 cows in under 5 mins from it's several vicious bites! My heart was already racing, even though these snakes were behind glass windows, but then our guide decided to share that some snakes can be found in Lake Manyara and Serengeti campsites! This sent shivers down my spine and without showing it I started to panic! Mark gave me a warming look but this didn't help. Fortunately we swiftly moved on to see some baby crocs and a 95 year old tortoise. Then, just as we were leaving, the guide suddenly grabbed something from one of the park workers and before we knew it a snake was shoved around Mark's neck! Obviously it was harmless but after hearing all the snake stories, it still felt very uncomfortable. Bravely, I also allowed for the snake to be put around my neck after warning the guide to keep the snake's arrowed head away from my face! It's long, thin and scaly body wound around my neck felt cold and almost felt like a damp artificial rubber toy snake. This action was for photo purposes only!
I shuddered as we left the snake park, hoping to only see these snakes again on the tv or behind glass. Mark made me feel better by saying the snakes would only attack if they were bothered and after a long conversation on snakes and the circle of life, I fell asleep in the truck as per usual.
A few hours later we came to the town adjacent to Lake Manyara, called Mtu Mbwa named after the annoying mosquitoes around the lake. This town looked clean and orderly and the locals seemed friendly and relaxed. There were school children traipsing back from school and a line of seated women selling green, yellow and red (yes red) bananas. We both liked this town and finally when we reached our campsite called Sunbright, we were surprisingly more pleased then we thought we would be.
The campsite was set in an enclosed pretty garden with towering coconut trees on the edges. Our tent was set up on the trimmed grass under a palm tree with the intent that the shade from the tree would make us feel cooler. There was even a trickling hot water shower and a Western toilet. Although the toilet didn't have a toilet seat, so we still had to use a pit toilet. We relaxed in the bar area while our tent was erected. Once we carefully scrutinised the nooks and cranies of the tent for any creepy crawlies, we set off to find out what lay beneath the heavy canopies of the forest beside Lake Manyara.
Lake Manyara was rather different to the plains of the Mara. The track into the nature reserve was bright red and extremely dusty, which reminded me of the roads in Uganda. It was densely populated with various types of acacia trees, mahogany trees and tamarind trees. The different heights and layers of trees and bushes made us feel as if we were moving through a tropical rainforest. I was quite excited to see tamarind trees as it is the fruit of these trees that produce sweet tasting chutneys to dip samosas in. We hoped we might find some locally in the market.
Minutes into the thick forest, we saw the first of many to come, a family of busy baboons. We both agree that these animals are the most interesting of mammals to witness in their natural environment. This is mainly due to the similar characteristics they share with us. There were mothers grooming their babies, males picking ticks off each other's backs and some were picking seeds and berries from the dung of other animals. One very amusing baboon was completely mimicking our behaviour. We quietly observed him as he chewed on the fallen leaves, getting frustrated at having to slap away the constant buzzing tsetse flies, just as we were.
As we continued, passing by several troops of monkeys including the vervet monkeys and baboons, we stopped to have a late lunch at a picnic site. The picnic site was further up and away from the forest areas, but we still had to be careful of baboons pinching our lunch. The site gave us an incredible view of the Lake and it's surroundings and Mark even spotted some giraffes in the far distance. We were quite high up so we didn't get too close to the edge. There were some other tourists who weren't afraid of being close to the edge and clambered up a tree to get some good photos with the great views behind them. Like us, our tour guide and others shook our heads with dismay. Thomas laughed with another tour guide at them, not because of the danger of falling, but the tree they were climbing on maybe the home of some deadly snakes!
Mark and I were astonished as to how much food we were given for lunch in our boxes. We each had a sandwich, pattie, hard boiled egg, pack of crisps, chocolate bar, two large bananas, biscuits, a carton drink, a cake and Mark also had some chicken. We barely finished everything. So much for trying to loose weight in Africa!
With a full belly, we began our safari again getting closer to the lake itself, where the trees began to lessen. Soon, we came to a huge pile of droppings. Thomas educated us about elephants and their droppings and that elephants only digest 50% of what they eat, hence why they are continuously eating about 300kg a day. Not far from their droppings, we saw a small herd of elephants quite close to us. They were doing what they do best and chomping on the tree shoots. We didn't see them for very long as they walked further into the bush. We were amazed at how quiet and graceful the largest land mammal was and unsure of where the phrase 'stomping like elephants' came from!
Thomas took us closer to the lake passing more wildebeest and zebra. We came to a part of the lake where we would be able to take a walk to get a closer view of the hippos and flamingoes in the lake. There was a wooden fence stopping tourists getting too close. The hippos were still quite a distance away, but thanks to Thomas' binoculars we could see the huge hippos sunbathing in their muddy waters. On the left of them the pink greater flamingoes in vast numbers searched for algae to eat. We learned that later at night, the hippos would vacate the waters and search for food. Hippos leave their droppings as a trail to find their way back to the lake in the dark.
On the long drive through the Lake Manyara park, we were hoping to see atleast a glimpse of the famous tree climbing lions that reside in this park. We were sadly not that lucky that time but still giggled thinking about the baboons.
We headed back to the campsite again mentally preparing ourselves for a night in a tent. When we arrived, I realised the tent was not that small and had space either side of the two single mattresses to place our bags. We quickly got our sleeping bags out before it went dark and Mark worried about how he would sleep through the night when it was so unbearably hot inside our tent. I worried that not sleeping under a mosquito net, meant it was easy access for the bugs to get us! Another check in the corners of the tent resulted in finding two small spiders and a weird looking creature - a cross between a grasshopper and a beetle, which meant I was not looking forward to tonight. I satisfyingly killed all of them apart from the grasshopper-beetle which Mark rescued! Now, those who know me might be shocked by this as I usually am a nature loving person who would never hurt any creature great or small, hence being a vegetarian. However, I have taken on a different approach in Africa and maybe for the rest of the travelling experience, that it is all about survival of the fittest. This is Africa and for all I know the tiniest bug could have a deadly bite or be carrying a deadly disease, so my new outlook is to get it, before it gets us! Stamping on them with my flip flops seems to do the trick.
Once our tent was ready for bed, we then had our first dinner cooked by Rama and it was delicious! Mark and I have really enjoyed the food and we knew it was about to get even better. We finished our dinner and tried to relax before getting into our dreaded tent.
As Mark expected it was ridiculously hot in the tent, which made it even more uncomfortable to fall asleep. In fear of something crawling into my ear while I was asleep, I rolled some balls of tissue and placed them in my ears. Stupidly, I thought I would be cold in the morning so I wore my pyjamas and tshirt and pulled the zip right up to the top of my sleeping bag and buried my head inside. Now I just had to pray that nothing would get into our tent while we were sleeping. Mark on the other hand fell asleep, shirt off, on top of his sleeping bag and disregarded my worries of insects getting us at night. Anxious and sweating, I managed to fall asleep.
Tejal & Mark x
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