Lake Manyara National Park Safari

Today we went on our first safari! After a couple hours of classes we headed in our Land Cruisers to Lake Manyara National Park. It was the most amazing experience of my life! We started off seeing (which are pretty cool) as we drove down the bumpy dirt road through the park. We stood on our seats and looked through the pop up roof that lifted up above our heads. As we scanned the dense forest we caught glimpses of so many awesome animals. There were a bunch of Blue Monkeys in the trees. They would climb up the branches and just sit for a couple of minutes, turning their heads back and forth. We saw some Warthogs grazing. Near the beginning of our trip we saw one old elephant in the forest by himself. He was just chomping on some leaves. Even though the sight was so simple it was truly breathtaking! How often is it that you get to look out your car window and see an enormous elephant? As we were driving there were so many cool trees. Mostly ones that look like they are from the Lion King. They are called Baobab trees. Even though the trees were dead and brown, they still created a beautiful landscape. We saw tons of troupes of baboons all along the whole drive. Some were in large groups farther from us, some walking and sitting in the road ahead of us. We were fortunate enough to see some small groups of males chase and fight each other for the title of Alpha male or for a female’s attention. We also saw some baby baboons swinging from trees and resting on their mothers’ backs. Baboons have many interesting interactions.