Safari - Day 1 - Lake Manyara

I had promised more pictures of our 3-day safari and I will try to recap only the highlights. I took an excessive number of photos and will not subject anyone to viewing all 300+ pictures! The first day of safari was in Lake Manyara National Park - this was a sign at the entrance that (I thought) had a beautiful statement. The first half of the park drive was through a beautiful forest. Although it was the middle of the day, the light was filtered through layers and layers of foliage so some of the photos came out a little dark.

Almost immediately after we drove onto the park road, we encountered a troop of baboons. There were dozens of them in the road, in the bushes, in the trees next to the truck. Several jumped up onto the vehicle to check us out. Here is a curious young male who just about gave Shari a heart attack! We thought he was going to climb into the truck with us!

We were fortunate to see many, many elephants during our safari. They travel in groups (herds) and most of the herds we saw on our safari had babies in the mix. This is the matriarch of the first herd we met in the forest of Lake Manyara.

We drove out of the forested area of Lake Manyara Park into a breathtaking lake basin that stretched for miles. We saw giraffes, impalas, wildebeests, water buffalo and hippos!

At the hippo pond (pictured here) we were allowed to get out of the truck to stretch our legs and look around. Our guide explained that each of the "lumps" you see in that pond is actually a hippopotamus! There were approximately 30 hippos in the pond; occasionally one would shift or stand up for a few moments. We learned that hippos have very thin, sensitive skin that can't handle the African heat, so they stay in water during daylight hours and only come out in the evenings to eat. Our guide said that it is extremely rare to see a hippo out of the water during they day, and if you do happen to see one you might be in big trouble - hippos are considered the most dangerous animal in Africa! They are VERY territorial, aggressive, and fast - they will charge anything they perceive as intruding on their river territory.
We stood at the hippo pond for a long time, trying to get some good pictures and just soaking in the amazing sights surrounding us. Eventually our guide made us get back into the truck to head out of the park. As he turned the truck around and started to drive away from the hippo pond, what do you think we saw? A HIPPO OUT OF THE WATER! I guess this guy got hungry early and needed a snack. We were so fortunate to see this rare sight! [Side note: if you ever go on safari, go ahead and spend the bucks to get a really good camera! There were so many times I wished I had a telephoto lens, this instance being one of them.]

The drive back to the park entrance was full of giraffes (and more elephants) - it is really something to see a giraffe just hanging out on the side of the road eating some leaves, or to have to stop your vehicle to let giraffes, elephants, zebras or warthogs pass in front of you. The entire safari experience is beautiful and surreal!!