Lake Manyara National Park & Kilimamoja Lodge

With a 6am start, we were introduced to what would be our primary home for the next 8 days. A Toyota Landcruiser 4x4 Safari vehicle: A very capable, 8 seated beast of a vehicle complete with a pop-up roof.

A note on safari vehicles

Every day, we saw broken down safari vehicles on the road. These vehicles put on a LOT of miles in legitimate off-road conditions. The weight-load of 2 people, a driver, and associated luggage probably put us at less risk of any sort of breakdown compared to the several 4x4s we saw loaded up with 6+ adults, luggage, and and gear (sometimes strapped to the rear roof-rack). Although any vehicle is at risk of something going awry in the demanding conditions of the national parks, I certainly think it’s worth asking any safari outfitter the condition of their vehicles and thinking about paying more for private/small group tours to cut down on the weight.

It’s a 2-hour drive westward out of Arusha to Lake Manyara, but first we opted for a cultural visit to a Maasai village where we learned about their way of life and engaged in some singing and dancing (and of course haggling & shopping). Is it awkward haggling with tribal women over bead bracelets and necklaces? Yes. But you’ll get used to it, and our guide gave us excellent advice on suggested values.

At Lake Manyara we saw Elephants, Manyara (blue) Monkeys, Baboons, Black Face monkeys, Striped Mongoose, Cape Buffalo, a variety of Hornbills, Zebras, Dik Dik, Impala, Warthogs, Weavers, Starlings, Grey Crowned Cranes. The lake itself is a vast, brown body of water with a high salinity that results in some dramatic dead trees near the water line. We had some very close interactions with the wildlife here and it was a great first game-drive (even absent any predators)

After the game drive we headed up the cliffsides of the Great Rift Valley to the Manyara Kilimamoja Lodge - a luxury experience with amazing sunrise views, an infinity pool, great food, and several activities I wish we had more time to explore. Here is also one of the few opportunities to do some astral/milky-way photography, they even have a guided experience for this, so be sure to check their activity guide if you choose to stay here!