Lake Manyara

Once the climb was over it would have been wrong not to see a bit of the local area and inhabitants.    We booked a day trip to Lake Manyara so we could see some of the local wildlife.  It may have been the first day back on flat land but that didn't mean we got the luxury of a lie in!  Lake Manyara was a three hour drive from Arusha and the animals were most active in the morning - so another early start and we got to be tourists for the day.

The drive to Lake Manyara took us right through the centre of Arusha and across some of the amazing African landscape.  We passed many small villages built by the Maasai along the way.  Fascinating!!

The park consists of 330 km2 (130 sq mi) of arid land, forest and a soda-lake which covers as much as 200 km2 (77 sq mi) of land during the wet season but is nearly non existent during the dry season.

Unfortunately the big cats were not up for visitors and went in to hiding but we did get to see some lovely creatures....and monkeys, loads of monkeys!

Monkeys surrounding the toilets sign

The view for lunch