Lake Manyara, Tanzania

We decided upon the tour operator “Zaratours” for our safari as they seemed to be the most reliable in town. The price was reasonable and we would get our own personal driver and cook for the duration of the trip. The trip would take us to the scenic Lake Manyara with transit through Ngorongoro area and then continue to the Serengeti for two full days and then reverting to the to Ngorongoro to see the crater on our return.

We departed Springland hotel mid morning and were picked up by our driver Oscar and our cook Jimmy and we headed northwest and away from dusty Moshi. Not that I do not like Moshi as it is sure an experience by itself, I just prefer the more out of town places. The jeep was fully loaded with all necessaries for the five day Safari and the weather was perfect, clear blue sky, light breeze and around 30 degrees Celsius. 

Our drive out of town was an experience in itself and difficult to explain. Some part of Tanzania is so unbelievable deprived from all basic human needs and even after being here for few days I still find it so far away from my “reality”. It is difficult even to try to understand how the Tanzanian people manage to live under these very poor life conditions and the so unequal gap between rich and poor. It is really an eye opener to experience this part of the world and I found myself thinking that I am so very privileged and thankful for being born where I am.

We headed up North and went on a 6-hour drive before we reached camp and our final destination for the day – Mosquito river city by Lake Mayara. We of offloaded most of our stuff here and continued to the National Park Lake Mayara. 

Lake Mayara  is a branch of the Great Rift Valley here in Tanzania and has a diverse set of landscapes and wildlife. The Park itself is 330km2 and the lake takes up around 230km2. Every year millions of wildlife migrate to the Lake and more than 400 different types of birds has there home here. 

As we entered the park the road winds through a jungle like forest and we were met by incredible flora and fauna expanding from the amazing blue monkeys gathering between the ancient mahogany trees to slow moving hippos, giraffes, birds and the breath taking scenery of all the varies shapes and sizes of the acacia threes.

This is just a fantastic experience and we are living it!

Just before sunset we drove to Twiga camp, sat up for the night, relaxed with a pre-dinner drink and awaited our first culinary experience of Jimmy’s cooking. As we have been very adamant of our vegetarian eating habits we were curious of the outcome and to our astonishment we had a fantastic spiced meal with fresh veggies and fruit.


Soon after dinner the tiredness came over us and an early night was welcoming and I fell asleep with a mind full of millions of new inputs of East Africa.