The jeep was driven by Jerry, who also was our guide; onboard were Peter, our cook, and Hanna, the “lady on business trip”. I must admit that I had spent some time wondering what kind of person I should expect and whatever I came up with, it was everything but that: a 20-year old Swedish student who just finished some sort of internship as an English teacher in a small town in Western Tanzania – what a relief! I was so glad to have another female traveller with me, even a young one, and I loved her accent! (Vic, I had to think of you so many times in the coming days!) In other words, I liked her immediately and was happy to have joined this tour.

After we picked up Aaron, we went to a shopping centre to buy some food and water. It was by far the most modern supermarket I have seen since I left Europe! Hanna, who had spent the past four months somewhere in the bush, and I were thunderstruck and wandered around in some kind of silent jubilation. I even bought a snickers!! I know this might sound crazy but you have no idea how much I wanted to eat some chocolate during the past two weeks in Ethiopia… But it got even better: close to the shopping centre there was an Italian ice café and Hanna and I had a REAL ICE CREAM!!! Jesus, what a delight.

Before we could launch our trip towards Lake Manyara, Jerry was so kind as to pass by the post office and a pharmacy for me where I bought some anti-malaria pills. I hadn’t taken anything so far but had been warned that it was essential to prevent malaria when going on camping safari. After I had done my necessary shopping, we were ready to go. The adventure began.

It took about four hours to arrive at Lake Manyara National Park, 130 km west from Arusha. On the way we stopped at a small town called Karatu for Jerry to buy some music. He had a few tapes onboard but we hardly knew any of the artists. The only one we could sing along with (which is what we kept doing for the coming five days) was good old smoochie-king Lionel Richie!

We arrived at the Lake Manyara campsite around 1 pm. Jerry and Peter unloaded the jeep and showed us how to set up our tents: one for Hanna and me, one for Aaron and one for them. Then Peter started to prepare our lunch while the three of us sat around a nearby picnic table and got to know each other better. It turned out that we could have a lot of fun together and we had some hilarious discussions throughout the coming days. After a delicious lunch and a short break, Jerry, Aaron and I took off to the park. Hanna hadn’t booked this bit of the safari, so she stayed at the campsite and spent the afternoon relaxing.

Lake Manyara National Park is located north west of an alkaline lake at the base of the Great Rift Valley. It covers 330 sq km and is famous for its tree-climbing lions. Other animals frequently seen are leopards, impalas, baboons, monkeys, wildebeest, zebras, giraffes, hippos, buffaloes and elephants. Due to the presence of water, the park also records over 120 species of birds a day. Unfortunately, Lake Manyara National Park has suffered from poaching and natural disasters in the past years. For example, in 1997/1998, during the El-Nino weather pattern, the forest, hippo pools and the lakes were over flooded. The damage is still visible around the lake shore.

The entry to the park was just around the corner of our campsite. As soon as we were in the park, it didn’t take long until we almost “ran into” the first game of the day: a very beautiful and photogenic giraffe. She was standing right in the middle of the road and wouldn't move until we came very close! There were a few other giraffes around, some of them still young with very fluffy skin. This was the first time in my life I saw giraffes and I loved them! They were so cute!! Other animals we saw today included zebras, warthogs, one elephant and a small herd of impalas. Closer to the lake, there were various birds and two hippos hiding in the swamp. The most beautiful memory of the day, however, was the endless line of pink flamingos at the horizon. The atmosphere right here on the lake shore is hard to describe but it was definitely a magic moment.

Just before returning to the campsite, we stopped to observe a group of baboons right next to the road. They were quite busy eating, lousing themselves and playing around. Especially the young ones were teasing and chasing each other, trying to keep their balance while climbing over tree stumps and jumping from one bush branch to another. There was one in particular who was so tiny and cute! Jerry said he was probably no more than two days old but - man, did he know how to annoy everybody else around him!

We finished our tour before it started to get dark around 6 pm and returned to the campsite where Peter had prepared dinner. Overall we have only seen a few animals today but it was great as a first encounter with Tanzania’s wildlife. Lake Manyara is a small but nice national park and just the view over the lake was worth the visit.