In the past, I would include Lake Manyara National Park in most of my Tanzania safari itineraries. Manyara is famous for its tree-climbing lions. Why is this unique? While a leopard sleeping lazily in the treetops is a common sight on safari in Tanzania, this strange behavior exhibited by lions has been the subject of interest and wonder. Lions climbing trees is not normal. Historically, the only places in the world to see tree-climbing lions is Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda and Lake Manyara in Tanzania. This behavior has now spread to the lions in Tarangire National Park.
This is important to note because Lake Manyara is an incredibly small park that has been made smaller by recent flooding. The park consists of one strip of land that lays between the lake and the greater rift escarpment. As the lake floods, the land in the park gets swallowed up. Many guides in Tanzania are opting to spend more time in Tarangire, where tree-climbing lions are present birds are abundant. They are then skipping Manyara altogether and going directly to Ngorongoro. Those that are including Manyara spend only an hour or two driving through the park as that's all the time it takes to see the land that is left visible. I'm sure that lake levels will rise and fall with the years, but for now, Manyara is a "miss" for me. If the flamingos are at Manyara, it would be worth a quick stopover, but they were at Lake Natron during my trip.
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
2 days ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.