Babati District

Many people I sporadically talked with during my past years of travel have not been super-fascinated by Lake Manyara National Park. But hey, how can you not love this landscape, uh? Take just one look on a topographic map: You will be squeezed between a fancy lake and a steep, several hundred metres high cliff. And this is exactly what you get. Take two elephants and drop them left and right of the road and no light will shine through between lake and cliff. During high water you might not find the road. Planning to do some camping between two rivers with heavy rains? Better pack some extra rations as you might be running out of bridges!

We are surprised to find ourselves among just a few other tourists. Entering from the north we dive into thick, juicy tropical jungle and open our windows in order to enjoy the hissing sounds of insects and other flying fancinesses. Huge, winged termites are swarming out of their nests and are being picked with astonishing precision directly from their nest by awesomely looking silvery-cheeked hornbills! As if you were sitting on a burger machine which is spitting burgers at 1 Hz. This is a life which also the endemic Manyara monkeys know to appreciate. In a tree directly above us we find two giant Verreaux's eagle-owls chilling in the shade of the leaves and blinking at us with their pink eyelids. Ground hornbills with their distinctive red necks are waiting in the next curve for us. Not far from them a family of baboons is having a lazy morning. What is going on here?

On an elevated picnic site we start our late breakfast with freshly baked bread which we were able to acquire from Migombani campsite this morning. With baked beans and pan-fried tomatoes it could not be better. Nice views down on the lake. More tourists appear. Feeding Michi is taken to a new level when a German family presents me with fried chicken legs and boiled eggs from their tour operator's lunch pack. Paradise! If just Franzi's stomach wouldn't make any stress ... hmm.

We continue further south. Some elephants are hiding in the bushes. During the last years the water level has been rising by several metres, as it has been the case in nearly all rift valley lakes. I observed this in Kenya two years ago already. Unfortunately, many trees are dying because of that. But the buffaloes do not care and chill at the waterfront.

After half distance along the lake, south of Jambi river and Endabash campsite, we meet no tourists anymore. It's our park! As we continue down to the hot springs the landscape changes multiple times. Arriving there, Franziska falls in love with green-yellowish little bee-eaters with their blue eyebrow while I fancy the hot and sulphurous springs barefoot. The water colour looks strange, brownish-red. Doesn't seem to be sedimentary but rather like flaky organic material. Maybe algae? A few kilometres further down the road: "Ist das Dreck da im See, oder lebt da was?" No, it's hippos! The low afternoon sun already starts casting long shadows from the cliffs over the narrow slice of land we a driving on. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to camp at the southern exit gate without extending our entry permit. Off we drive into the night!Read more