National Parks Africa » Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara National Park is spectacularly set on a narrow band of Lakeshore along the western wall of the Great Rift Valley. The park covers just 330 square kilometres (132 square miles), two thirds of which is taken up by the lake. Altitude varies between 960 metres (3,149 feet) at the lake to 2,000 metres (6,560 feet) at the top of the escarpment. Rainfall is variable, ranging from 250 mm to 1200 mm (9.75 inches to 46.8 inches) yearly, but the springs and streams emerging from the base of the rift wall water a forest that could not otherwise grow in such a dry area.

The approach to Manyara is dramatic because the rift wall is so clearly defined and can be seen running north and south into the hazy distances. The road to Lake Victoria passes the north gate and park headquarters of Manyara. Ifpermission is gained beforehand one can enter and exit by the southern gate which is on a seasonal track that roughly follows the base of the rift, joining the main Arusha-Dodoma road at Magagu. This track should be avoided during the wet season.

Driving across the valley, one can see giraffes and often a variety of other plains dwellers such as wildebeest, zebra and ostrich, even before reaching the park.

Mto-wa-Mbu village (the name means “mosquito river”) spreads out below the Simba River, just a couple of kilometres from the Manyara park gate. The village has a thriving local market with a colourful mix of peoples—it was claimed that over 100 different languages could be heard here.

Bubbling brooks:
At the park entrance the water that has travelled so far from the Ngorongoro Highlands, underground through lava rock, emerges in abundance. The bubbling brooks and clear streams water a mature forest composed largely of mahogany trees, fig trees, fat sausage trees, crotons with heart-shaped leaves, and many others typical of riversides and upland forests.

The cool, shady forest is a welcome and beautiful respite from the normally hot dry glare of the Rift Valley floor. Other primates find the forest a good place too; there are many troops of baboons and vervets in the more open patches of trees. Blue monkeys are a special treat here because they are habituated to cars and people, and the trees are not too thick or tall. Elephants occasionally loom out of the forest where they shelter and feed. More abundant but more rarely seen are the shy, solitary or nocturnal animals such as bushbuck, rhinos, aardvarks, pangolins, civets, leopards, and wild cats. Waterbucks in Manyara are the common type with a white “bull’s eye” ring on their rumps.

Big termite mounds dot the forest floor and above, silvery-cheeked hornbill and crowned hornbill call. At the forest edge and in more open areas, ground hornbills are often seen feeding in family groups. Grasslands stretch long the lake flats, providing food for wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, ostrich, buffalo and warthogs. Giraffe browse among the thorn bushes and on the lake perimeters. Sometimes young bulls neck fight. The older, almost black giraffe with huge knobs on their heads are the breeding bulls.

The Mosquito River cuts through forest and across the grassy plain to enter the lake at the north end. It emerges from a thick stand of yellow-barked acacias which are well browsed by giraffes and it offers a place for hippos and birds to rest and bathe.

Life at the lake:
The birdlife at Mtowa Mbu is stunning in its abundance and diversity. Most of the birds have been feeding in the lake and they come to the freshwater river to drink and to wash the sticky soda from their feathers. Pelicans, storks and cormorants are the main bathers along with crowds of Egyptian geese, spur-winged geese, strange sounding whistling ducks, plus terns, gulls, thickknees and others.

The entry of the river into the lake is hidden by sedges and rushes but this upper end of the lake is often fringed pink by flamingoes in their thousands. Flamingoes are forever on the move, searching for the right food in lakes up and down the Rift Valley. Unless the lake is particularly wet or dry, flamingoes gather there in vast numbers, turning the lake pink all along its length. Although it is difficult to get close, the sight, sound and smell of a million flamingoes is unforgettable.

A large herd of buffalo lives on the flats, where they become prey for the local lions. The lions can sometimes be seen feeding on a kill by the swamp where the river enters the lake.

The rest of this park lies to the south. Look out for the “wild mango” tree which grows on the fringe of the forest. It is a bushy tree with long, shiny green leaves and masses of white waxy flowers that look like gardenia and fill the air with a magical fragrance of jasmine.

Leaving the forest and Lakeshore you enter a more shrubby habitat and eventually emerge into acacia woodland. The dominant trees are the familiar flat topped Acacia tortilis. In places there are thick stands of bushes that hide animals from view but in the many open areas are long views out to the lake shore where ostriches parade, elephants bathe in the river or lake shores and impala wander with baboons through the low trees.

Packs of banded mongooses and dwarf mongooses gather around termite mounds and dikdik pairs hide in bushes. Lions sometimes rest on the broad limbs of acacia trees, and you might spot the occasional leopard. Most abundant of all are the tsetse flies which keep out livestock and protect the area from human encroachment.

Birds are plentiful, especially during the migrations of Eurasian species from October to April. Then large numbers of European bee-eaters and rollers join the local species, as well as various cuckoos, buzzards, hawks, falcons and eagles.

Where the cliffs get more rocky and you can see the white streaks of the rock hyrax “toilets”, you might see the Verreaux’s eagle. It is the largest East African eagle, mostly black with white scapulars and rump. They often soar in pairs, patrolling the cliffs in search of hyraxes, their main prey. Although Verreaux’s eagles travel the length of Manyara, their main haunts are around the Endabash area in the south.

The Endabash River:
Wander along some of the tracks towards the escarpment or down along the Endabash River. Where the river enters the lake, there is a broad pasture with many grazing animals spread across it. Along the river the mix of trees and bush forms an unusually rich composite of riverine forest. The Endabash cascades down a steep granite cliff behind the ranger post. Sometimes the river crossing that leads across Endabash to the south is difficult because of high water so a ranger must take you there. But if you can cross, the visit to Maji Moto (“hot springs”) less than five kilometres (three miles) further on is well worth thetrip.

These springs come out from the base of a granite cliff on which grow Terminalia trees with reddish pods that look like flowers, and some Euphorbias, lots of mixed brush and big gardenia bushes. A stunted old baobab marks the lower side of the point where you walk down to the pool to test the water. Be careful of slippery stones: the water is definitely HOT, about 60 C (140 F).

If you head further south, there is another large grassy plain just past Maji Moto. A long waterfall falls from the rift wall at the edge of the plain, then you enter a strange forest made up almost entirely of Acacia robusta. This southern extension to the park was farmed until the 1960s and you may still find signs of human settlement, although the area has reverted to native vegetation.

After the ranger post and jacaranda trees, you know you have left the park because suddenly there are coffee bushes and tractors and barns a reminder that Manyara is only a tiny strip of the wild, between human habitation, the lake and rift wall.