Moyo Hill Camp and Lake Manyara National Park – 2/9/11

                      What a fantastic day!! After making breakfast and two classes in the morning we loaded up the land cruisers and drove the 30 mins to Lake Manyara National Park.  Four professors came with us to explain what we were going to see and help us with the assignments they had assigned to be done while in the park.  The roof hatches were opened and a driving permit was obtained and then we were off on our first safari!  You first enter through a forest area where almost immediately we saw a huge troop of baboons.  Watching all the individuals interacting was like watching a soap opera.  Every reaction cause another member of the troop to react and the youngsters were either cuddling with mom or fighting over small things they found.  Small incidents caused short spirited outbursts or moments of social bonding. It was fascinating.  Continuing along the road, our first group of students stopped and appeared to be staring at the ground very excitedly.  Once they moved along (frustratingly not telling us what they saw) we discovered the reason.  It was a black mamba (most poisonous snake in Africa) sunning at the base of an ancient mahogany tree.  This was funny because the girl I was sitting next to and I had been talking about this snake just yesterday and here it was.  Through the whole forest area we saw more baboons, several female bushbucks (very delicate small deer), and a few happy warthogs wallowing in a nice muddy section of the creek.  One moment we were in the forest and the next we were in the bush land (shortly) and heading straight out on to the savannah.  In the distance (thanks heavens for really spectacular binoculars) were visible a large herd of impala, zebra, Thompson’s gazelle, and a few individual warthogs.  Arriving at the public viewing area near a pond like watering point we saw hippos, egrets, storks, pelicans, kingfishers, one wildebeest, and tons more birds that I never learned the names of.  After taking numerous pictures and writing lots of observations we climbed back in the cruiser to continue on.  We returned to the bush land which I now confess is my favorite area.  We came across a small family of elephants with two females and two babies one of which was less than a month old (it could still walk under its mom).  They were shy and quickly disappeared into the bush.  A few minutes later we found a group of juvenile elephants who were quite curious and did not run off right away.  Many annoying tourists (no I’m not also a tourist…I’m studying there) crowded around us and the elephants took off.  We soon came across a baby giraffe and its mom who stood there for a really long time and allowed us to take lots of pictures.   The rest of the drive was equally interesting and packed with animals: mongoose, male bushbuck, dik dik, and more baboons.  We all emerged from the game drive with far too many pictures, enough dust that even I looked tan, and eager to come back tomorrow!  Night everyone