Lake Manyana National Park

We took the back roads into the park, which led us through numerous Toga villages. Everywhere we went people would wave and yell "Jambo" or "Hello". House styles varied from mud sides with straw roofs to brick houses, one even with a satellite dish. Along the way, we stopped at a stream where they were panning for gold. They dug for promising sand then used plastic on the bottom, cloth to catch the heavy particles, and hemp on top. By pouring water on the sand this filtration system trapped the gold for them. The squeezed out the hemp and cloth into a gold pan, and panned the soil for the gold. The three guys we watched had panned about $20 worth of gold in 3 days. The whole family became very friendly as we watched them work.

The park itself was filled with baboons, we encountered 10-12 large troops. There were also lots of elephants. We started out in dense woods at the foot of the ledge for the Great Rift Valley. Then as we went along, the woods disappeared and we were in dried grass when the lake came into view. The lake is at a low point since the short rains (Oct-Dec) were just starting. Across the lake we could see many dust devils, closer in were Elephants, Cape Buffalo, and a few Hippos. The deep forest started again and we came upon a hot spring feeding the lake. Then another dry patch and across the lake you see most of the shore line was pink - thousands of flamingos. Then the forest started again and we spotted Blue Monkeys. Other animals we spotted: Leopard Tortoise, Klipspringer, and a Bushbuck. New bird sightings: Augur Buzzard, Martial Eagle (okay we saw this earlier, but this was a better view), Red Cheeked Cordon Blue, and Little Bee-Eater

Martial Eagle

Later we explored one of the daily markets selling clothes, shoes, pots, and lots of vegetables. We stopped for a beer and drew quite a crowd of kids, teens, and a family including Grandma. Rich bought her a beer, but she complained that she would have preferred the cash.

Tonight our lodge is the Tloma Mountain Lodge which is on a coffee plantation. It's a beautiful place, though the rooms we're in are a little noisy.