Lake Manyara National Park

Manyara National Park is 330 sq km of which 230 is lake, so that leaves 100 on land. Again, lots of elephants. We were excited to be going to a hippo pool. We did see many hippo heads floating, but rarely saw a whole body. When we did glimpse a full body emerging from the pool at a distance he looked like a massive boulder. Boy those guys are huge! What were we doing canoeing so close to them two days ago!!

At the hippo pond we met two very nice young men from Kentucky. They had just finished a 6 day climb to the top of Kilimanjaro. They told us about a war vet amputee who is currently climbing Kili. He has no forearms or lower legs. He is still accenting the mountain and is Blogging about it. Check out his blog:
www.missionkilimanjero2012

Raymond toured us through a market at Mto Wa Mbu (Mosquito Creek). I bought a 4 meter piece of fabric that the women would wear as a dress.

Today we spotted two animals of the Small Big Five. This group is similar to the names of the Big Five, they are: leopard tortoise, white-headed buffalo weaver, lion ant, rhino beetle, and elephant shrew, as you can see they have the big five animal name in their name. The first two on the list we saw today. I was really pleased to see the tortoise, he gleamed beautifully golden and pranced right along on his tip toes. I won't be too disappointed if we don't see the last three small big five on the list!

Again we are at a beautiful lodge. We consider ourselves very privileged to be able to be well cared for!!

Pictures:
Huge umbrella tree at picnic stop.
Vista overlooking Manyara NP, lake in far background.
Two fotos of lodge, inside and out. (Notice that Don is always laying on the bed in these snaps!
??I am meditating. dz.