Day 13: Lake Manyara National Park

A few of us had been bitten in the night by some hungry mosquitoes – Jan in particular got munched good and proper in the neck, shoulder and on his fingers – fingers most likely from where he was trying to fend off the one eating his neck. I escaped mildly with a couple of little noshes on my leg and on my lower arm...b*stards!!

After breakfast, we set off at around 7:30am for Lake Manyara which is renowned for its elephants and tree climbing lions and flamingoes. It is situated on the well named mosquito river and is around 127sq miles in size.

Our circular tour took as around the main part of the lake where we say many Stalks, Flamingos, and Puffin birds as well as a massive herd of elephants (around 15 or so drinking from a stream), monkeys, baboons, giraffes and unfortunately lots and lots of tsetse flies (these ere evil little buggers which as they bite you lay eggs beneath the surface of your skin – they often go un-noticed for several weeks until they start to hatch under your skin...nasty..so we kept applying the deet every 10 minutes or so just to be safe).

On the way back from the tour we stopped off at a Hippo Pool and saw, as you’d imagine, loads of hippos that were slightly more active than the ones we’d seen previously. Most of the hippos’ were migrating from one pool to another. The view was quite spectacular as there were so many different breeds of animals all in one place – Hippos, Zebras in the background and flocks of stalks in the distance...it really was like looking at a real life safari postcard.

We arrived back at the campsite today around 1pm for lunch and then had the afternoon to ourselves. It was quite a wierd afternoon as it was very hot one minute (too hot to sit in the sun) and cloudy and rainy the next. The girls attempted a bit of sunbathing and the boys gathered round and read their books and listened to some music..most of ended up dosing off. Katie was still not feeling to good but managed to get a few hours sleep and seemed a little less chesty come dinner time.

After the antics of the bugs and mozzies last night, I was taking no chances and put on long sleeved trousers and lots of deet. We headed for dinner at 7pm and just chilled out....

Have written the blog early today so I’ll fill you in on any evening antics tomorrow morning if there are any and tomorrow morning we are off to a Snake Pit and then on to the beach for a few days of relaxation before we head home on Friday night. Weirdest question of the day from Harry today after apply deet and realising she’d sprayed her NorthFace jacket with deet – “Now then If I was deet, where would I go?”

We hope you are enjoying the blog – we’d appreciate any comments to know you are missing us all...Everyone sends their love to friends and loved ones back home and we hope the rest of the FutureBuilders didn’t find their first day back at work too hard....