For my second safari drive, Alfred took me to Lake Manyara National Park, which is very near Ngorongoro crater, but is a very different environment. While Ngorongoro, once you get to the bottom of the caldera, is a wide open plain that makes spotting animals at a distance easy, Lake Manyara is a forested area, so animals need to be close to be able to be seen.
This was only a half day safari drive, but it was still packed with wildlife sightings. Right at the entrance gate, we were greeted by a blue monkey, and a small troop of baboons were on the road just past the gate.
After that, the drive was a bit uneventful until we started to head out of the park. Then we had sightings of impala, giraffe, little bee-eater birds, augur buzzard, an antlion (one of the “little 5”), hammerkop, and an elephant who blocked the road, trapping us for about 45 minutes. The elephant was drinking some water from a roadside stream and attempted to spit on me, but missed by inches.
With some time to kill in the afternoon, Alfred took me to a local gallery where they do hand carvings, and gave me a brief tour of the village that neighbors Acacia Farm Lodge.
