Arusha, Tanzania and Lake Manyara National Park
As you know, we had already spent most of our tour on very rough dirt roads. But as we were leaving Amboseli, our driver/guides let us know we’d be crossing a dry lake bed this morning on our way to Tanzania, and then it was going to be the roughest road of the trip.
Oh my gosh. Our entire group agreed we will never complain about Oklahoma roads again. The area is so dry we actually passed a man herding a group of camels down the road. Camels. That was a first.
The border crossing was easy peasy. We presented our yellow fever cards first, then got into another line and presented our passports and visa’s. All in all, in less than an hour all 24 of us had been cleared for entry and we reloading into our land cruisers.
I haven’t mentioned this, but we had good cell reception throughout the trip. On the road to Tanzania we saw some huge electric towers. It turns out Tanzania provides a substantial amount of electric energy to Kenya and delivers it via those power lines.
The first thing we noticed about Tanzania were middle class looking homes. Kenya has no middle class. Tanzania does. Kenya is very dry. Tanzania is greener, and the people don’t have to work as hard finding a way to grow/gather food. They therefore have free time to work at part time jobs and earn supplemental income.
Arusha is a large city, over a half a million in population. Kenya is 80% Christian, 10% Muslim. Tanzania is 60% Christian, 30% Muslim. The Maasai are Christian by the way and also polygamists.
In Arusha we visited a series of shops employing people with physical disabilities. Their wares (primarily hand blown glass objects and hand-woven linens) were stunning and very affordable. We also had a fantastic luncheon here and met our new team, Gabriel (our Tour Director) and our four new driver/guides.
Off we went to Lake Manyara and our next resort. This one was my all-time favorite. We had two story buildings with four spacious rooms in each. They were round, and looked like they housed hobbits. It was magical. Gorgeous, thatched ceilings made each area of the resort a work of art, as they were cylindrical and cone shaped. See pics. Again, excellent food and service which is critical to the tour as there is no other place than your resort to eat. Every resort/tent camp is very secluded.
We slept well and packed up the next day to head to the Ngorongoro Crater after our Lake Manyara game drive.
Home to the world’s largest baboon population, Lake Manyara is a small, ecologically diverse park with forests, grassy plains, and a huge alkaline lake. We loved that drive. We saw elephants by the dozens, giraffe, hippo, dikdik (which are adorable), and some of the most prehistoric looking birds in all of Africa. It was like being in Jurassic Park.
It was yet another day that exceeded our expectations and did not disappoint.
Next stop, a local primary school. The highlight of the tour.