Safari day 5: Lake Manyara

Final Safari

We opted for a late start today departing after breakfast at 0900. We pulled up to the bus stand where driver Richard’s wife was, and she said hello to us. It was about an hour to Lake Manyara National Park. It was very lush nearly like a tropical rainforest.

Richard explained that that it would have the same life as the other parks but it is famous for lions sitting up in the trees (but only trees with inclined trunks, not vertical trunks like the ones leopards are capable of climbing up). He also explained that bisons were more easily spotted here, then I realised he meant pythons! We saw neither of those here but we did get a very distant glimpse of the pink flamingos standing in the alkaline lake.

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Back to town

After lunch and a little more fruitless driving, we headed back for Arusha about 1430, arriving at the hotel before 1630. We made a couple of stops for diesel but one of them was fruitless due to no power to operate the pumps; it isn’t something we think of in developed countries.

First thing I did at the hotel was to make a quick call to the airline to see if we could get on an earlier flight tomorrow (which wasn’t available when we booked); the receptionist charged us USD1 for that quick call. Then she tried charging us USD1 for each piece of laundry when we had been told it was USD0.50. This was the same woman that tried to charge me USD65 for our last stay without checking that we were on a special web rate of USD48.

Meanwhile, Kim was unloading the luggage with Richard and we tipped him equivalent of USD50 for the 5d/4n for the both of us. Kim said that he didn’t have a happy face. I think tipping expectations must be very high here and are disproportionate to what locals earn typically.

When we got to our room, we found that our laundry was still damp after 4 nights; fortunately it didn’t stink or get mildew.

We couldn’t be bothered going out and stayed in. The power didn’t come on till around dinner time and the internet didn’t work this stay. Close to bed time we noticed that the bed only had one sheet (no sheet between the body and the blanket). While I’d accept that in a cheap hotel in undeveloped countries, we didn’t accept it for a place that is charging USD65 to walk-in customers. A phone call fixed that.

Safari Conclusions

It all depends on luck but we saw so much on the first day at Tarangire which was very near to Arusha. Serengeti being relatively far away added an awesome experience and very little else. The last two days at Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro crater didn’t really add much. Not only were we jaded by then, but what we saw was pale in comparison to the days before.

We had booked for a Luxury Tented Lodge safari from Bobby Tours, at a price that other operators were trying to charge for a budget tent experience. While they gave us the names of all the accommodation that had been proposed (and actually used during the safari), it was hard to know exactly each one would be like in advance as some properties have similar names. We ended up being in lodges and chalets the whole time without a luxury tent experience at all; I had guessed we might get two nights based on the accommodation names we had been given. I was a little disappointed I can’t really complain as I had gotten a better product at the price of a product that’s two-steps lower.