Safari Part 1a

August 29, 2009 (The second extra day: Lake Manyara)

Mike Taylor picks us up in the morning, and we head off for our first day on safari. We drive through Arusha on the way, and stop off to meet Flavia, Mike’s wife. She’s booked our lodgings for our two extra days for us. Two extra days is great. But we learn another valuable Africa lessons when trying to pay for them. Flavia is expecting cash and won’t or can’t put it on a credit card. As we didn’t bring that much cash with us, we will go on to learn a next another important lesson. ATMs are hard to find here, even in cities. Working ATMs that take VISA and dispense cash in return are even harder to find. And when you do, you have to request cash in Tanzanian shillings without knowing the exact conversion rate or getting a receipt. It’s a mystery game. But as almost no one, even the hotels, will take credit cards, it’s a game we’ll play a lot.

Then we head to Lake Manyara. Along the way, we stop in a town to attempt another shopping venture, but are so bombarded that no one buys anything. Anita even tries speaking only in French to throw them, but to no avail, as they counter by finding someone who can speak rudimentary French. We eventually make our way back to the Land Rover and jump in. Mike laughingly takes off.

On our way out of town, we suddenly see families of baboons walking in the streets and hanging out at the stores. We beg Mike to stop so we can take pictures. He does, but lets us know we’ll see many more in the park.

We drop our stuff at the lodge (situated at the top of a rise overlooking the park) and head in. Lake Manyara is a large alkaline lake surrounded by relatively thick forest. A lot of elephant studies have been done in the area. The animals can’t drink the water at the lake, but do drink from the pools and rivers moving into it. Mike says it’s a park that’s less popular than the Crater, which is great for us. It’s also the only park on our journey where we’ll see the baobab tree.

The baobab was known to Anita and I through The Little Prince, a favorite book of hers in French and mine in English, that is set partially in Northern Africa.

The baobabs here have already dropped their leaves, so are beautiful, if slightly ominous, trees. I remark that it ought to be a Harry Potter tree. Mike replies that it’s the upside down tree. The tree, with its large trunk and small spray of branches at the top, that do look like a root system, does look upside down. He tells us the local mythology.

The gods made the baobab, a beautiful tree with lovely leaves, delicate flowers and delicious fruit. The baobab is happy until one day he notices that the acacia tree has all these things but the gods have also given the acacia tree thorns for protection. The baobab then complains to the gods, long and loud, about his lack of thorns. The gods finally grow angry at his lack of gratitude, pull him out of the ground, and replant him, headfirst, to silence his complaints. The tree has remained upside down ever since.

Either way, they’re beautiful.

To be continued...

Photos: Arusha. Baboons in the street. Baobab Trees at dusk.