This is from day three of my safari. You might want to
start from the beginning.
So as not to build undue suspense, let me make clear right now that this entry discusses
tree-climbing lions.
The drive from Ndarakwai Camp to Lake Manyara took us through Arusha. We didn't get much of a look at it, though we did pass a clocktower that's supposed to mark the half-way point between Johannesburg and Cairo. We also saw this mural, not sure what it's about. It looked like a nice place, fairly developed, etc. It's the center of tourism in Tanzania, I guess, because of its proximity to both the Serengeti and Mount Kilimanjaro. I'll be back in a week or so and I'll get a closer look then.
Lake Manyara itself is an enormous lake that never completely dries, so it has game year-round. It was pretty low for our visit, though -- in this photo, you can see a lot of the dry lake bed. The lake is at the bottom of the rift valley. Like the other continents, Africa is on an enormous tectonic plate. Unlike the others, the plate is tearing in half. In a few hundred thousand years or so, Africa will be two continents (that's right, continents reproduce asexually (except Australia and New Zealand, of course)). The line starts in Lebanon, goes through Israel, then offshore through the Red Sea, and then splits in two, one line dropping through the border of Congo and Uganda and the other through Kenya and Tanzania. There are active volcanoes here as part of the rift, though I didn't get to see any lava (I was hoping for aa, whatever the hell that is).
We arrived at Kirurumu Camp at Lake Manyara about mid-day and checked out our tent -- I was unimpressed. The least they could do is cordon off the toilet. Amazing how quickly you develop high standards for tents, huh? Also, this camp had no mosquito nets, just like the last one, only the last one was in a place without mosquitoes. Kirurumu Camp is a few miles from Mbu Town, which is on the Mbu River. Mbu is Swahili for "mosquito". If you're two miles from Mosquito River, you should damn well have mosquito nets. Actually, none of the places we stayed had mosquito nets even though every non-safari hotel in the region has them -- I guess they don't want to frighten the tourists. And also they don't care, because if you get malaria you won't get sick until you're long gone. There's a giraffe in this picture, believe it or not.
We went to lunch, which was acceptable. There was a large group of American college students near us, and I listened as the girl asked the trip director if she had to keep taking Cipro (an antibiotic) even though she felt better, and the director responded, "I always stop taking antibiotics as soon as I feel better. You should too." For some reason I was not permitted to set them on fire. Probably because tents are flammable.
We got in the car and drove to Lake Manyara National Park. At first it wasn't very exciting -- the vegetation is fairly dense and it's hard to see much. There were a lot of baboons playing along the road, but honestly, there's only so much baboon antics you can watch before you get tired of it. And that's not much. They sit around, they eat insects, they bite each other, they have funny butt patches, time to move on. We saw a few deer too (like the one in the previous photo).
Then we saw a few Land Cruisers (everyone drives Toyota Land Cruisers) clustered around a tree and drove over to investigate. In the tree there was a large half-asleep male lion curled up among the branches. The story goes that in Lake Manyara, mosquitoes are enough of a problem that allegedly, one day a lion climbed a tree to get away from them. (Like us, he was not provided with a mosquito net). It worked, and he taught all the other lions, and now Lake Manyara has tree-climbing lions. Lions aren't great climbers (their claws aren't designed for it -- unlike leopards, which have non-retracting claws), so they can only climb trees like this one, with lots of branches near the ground.
It was mid-day -- fairly hot -- and this lion was not interested in doing stuff. Except being in a tree. We sat and watched him for a while. Mostly he was dozing, sometimes he'd look around a bit, maybe yawn, then go back to sleep. Everyone around us was pretty excited, me included. I mean, come on, lion in a tree. Also, we were viewing the park from an open-top safari vehicle, and there was a lion in a tree above us. I guess either he didn't want to jump in, or he hasn't figured it out. One wildlife book said that lions view safari vehicles as a single large entity, not a steel can filled with tasty primate treats. I'm not so sure. (Update: definitely not. See later entry.)
The best part of the lion, measured in terms of goodness, is the mane. Lions, like me, fight large prey and each other by biting at the jugular vein, so the mane protects them when fighting over territory and females -- this way every conflict isn't fatal to one of the lions. Manes become darker with age, and healthier lions have darker manes. Manes are insulating, so male lions overheat easily -- one reason that females do most of the hunting. Lions can reach forty miles per hour, but not for very long.
After determining that the lion wasn't going anywhere, we drove over to the hippo pool. Hippos can't sweat, so they spend the hot parts of the day mostly underwater. Despite being grazers, they're more comfortable in water -- their closest relatives are whales (not, as the name suggests, horses -- hippo is Latin for horse). They are very heavy (almost ten thousand pounds), can run very fast (thirty miles per hour), and are very aggressive (lots of biting), but that didn't stop us from getting out of the car for better photos. Fortunately, I had brought my bathing suit, so I went for a quick dip. It turns out hippos spend most of their time in the water because they have a swim-up bar in there. Pretty smart.
Hippos mostly eat grass. They tend to emerge from the water at dusk to eat. Once in a rare while they eat meat -- I saw footage on Discovery Channel of hippos killing and eating a wildebeest. Although they spend their lives in water, adult hippos can't swim -- they move by jumping off the bottom. Like me, young hippos can swim somewhat and can control their buoyancy. Hippos give birth and nurse underwater. Their preferred drink is scotch, which they prefer to cut with soda but usually settle for river water, and they're always complaining about not having ice cubes. Do not make "on the rocks" jokes to hippos, they have heard them all before.
They like to topple boats, probably for fun. I'm told that when they're on land, they like to have a clear path back to the water, and they're most dangerous if you block that path. Wikipedia says that some guy imported four hippos into Colombia, and after he was arrested the government decided they were too difficult to seize and left them alone. Now there are sixteen. Hippos are the best invasive species ever. I hope someone introduces a few to the Central Park Reservoir. Or my bathroom. There were also buffalo near the hippo pool. I guess they're friends.
After watching the hippos for a bit, we went back to see how the lion was doing. Still treed, it turned out. We watched for a bit but it was getting late, so we went back to the camp. I tried to signal discretely for the lion to jump in the car and come back with us, but he had a blind date with a wildebeest in a couple of hours.
Our dinner was good, but there was some sort of group of guys singing and drumming at us. They were singing this horrible pop song that seems to be everywhere in this country -- ask anyone who's been to Tanzania about the song that starts "Jambo / Jambo Bwana" and they will cringe. There was a bowl in front of them, but putting money in it did not make them stop.
Early night, lots of game to see the next day. That was day one at Lake Manyara.
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