Today was the first day of a 3-day game drive in Tanzania. The guide picked me up at the lodge in Moshi and then we traveled west to Lake Manyara park.
While Raymond (guide) was arranging the park passes at the gate, I visited the conservation office and read about the animals I might see. The one that stayed in my mind was the Spitting Cobra, a snake that was known for accurately aiming highly poisionous venom at it's prey. YIKES! Good thing we're not allowed out of the Jeep during the game drive. When we were back in the vehicle, I asked Raymond how many times he'd seen this type of cobra in the park and he assured me that it was extrememly rare to encounter one. Whew!
As soon as we were in the park, we began to see hundreds of baboons. They were everywhere. We also saw vervet and blue monkeys in the trees along the road. After about 10 minutes, we came into a clearing where we saw a small group of young elephants! How exciting to see them in the wild. Then we headed down to the Hippo pool, which was located on the plain. There were about 20 Hippos in the water and beyond them on the plain were thousands of Wildebeests, Zebras, Impalas, and the most beautiful Maasai Giraffes.
I loved watching the Giraffes on the plain. Their movements were so graceful, it was like a wildlife ballet. I remember one Giraffe in particular who was galloping across the grass, such slow and elegant movements - spectacular!
The Zebras were so fat and happy on the plain. They were too pudgy to gallop and seemed content to move slowly from one grazing spot to the next. The Wildebeests didn't want to get too close to the vehicle, so we had to use the binoculars to see them up close.
As we headed away from the plain back to the forest, we stumbled onto an old Water Buffalo. He was having an afternoon snack near a small brook. We also saw an African Fish Eagle in the trees. And of course, more baboons.
On the way up to the lodge, we also ran across an old male elephant in the forest. When he saw us, he flapped his ears to make himself look even bigger. I think I got a pretty good photo of him with his ears out.
After driving around all afternoon on very bumpy roads inside the park, I was glad to head up to the lodge for the evening. We were welcomed with hot towels and a refreshing glass of cold mango juice. Hot water was available from 6 to 9 each morning and evening. So I quickly headed up to my room to wash off the dust and dirt from the day and get ready for dinner and a restful night's sleep. The balcony in my room overlooked the lake and I had a wonderful view. The staff warned us to lock the patio doors at night to keep the baboons out.
The next day, Raymond and I were heading off for our second day of the game drive in the Serengeti. He said it was a five-hour trip on a very dusty, bumpy, off-road trail just to get there, but that the payoff would be viewing predators such as lions and cheetas, and if we were lucky, maybe even a leopard! I could hardly wait!
