We started our first full day of the Tauck safari by driving to the southwest. At least we were on paved roads. Single lane, but paved. Two hours later we stopped at Lake Manyara to stretch our legs and get our first game drive in the record. After refreshing ourselves we started the drive by trying the local red bananas our guide bought on the road just five minutes before. They are very red.
Lake Manyara has the thickest shrubs and bushes I’ve ever safaried in. It’s the only place were the vehicles had to stay on the (red, dusty) roads. That’s OK, as we have far more open areas coming soon. But the olive baboon doesn’t care about any of that. A big male and his posse forced all the cars out of the way.
We saw our first elephants of our trip, but they were off the road enough to always be partially obscured. Sounds like a first-world problem to me. There was a mother and child, but we just could not get a clear angle.
The convoy of five 4x4s turned around after finding a family of impala.
We had lunch and drove the rest of the way to our destination for the next two days. Stay tuned.
I did not realize the elevation of the locations were are visiting.
- Arusha – 4600 ft (1400 m)
- Serengeti – 7000 ft (2130 m)
- Amboseli – 3500 ft (1070 m)
This whole trip the lowest I’ll be after leaving London is over 1000 meters. No wonder I’m so tired – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.