Happy birthday Jenny, a weekend glamping and visiting Lake Manyara National Park

With Jenny's birthday on Monday we booked into Africa Safari Glamping tented camp (-3.39396, 35.87662) near Mto Wa Mbu (Mosquito River) for the Saturday and Sunday nights leading up to it.  It's a new camp with a range of tents from basic to very nice.  We chose very nice.  It is situated in a dense stand of enormous Fever Trees.  Click here for info and photos.  Jenny enjoyed the pool and I was happy walking the grounds watching birds.  Each evening we had Slender-tailed Nightjars swooping around our tent - a new bird for me.

This fellow (and a rather large Cape Buffalo) kept us stuck in one spot for quite a while.  He only moved when the safari car came.  We were very aware how small our RAV4 is.

Immature Martial Eagle (photo by Jenny)

A pair of Hildebrandt's Francolin (female in front).

Banded Mongoose - always fun to watch Mongoose.

On Sunday we we up early and through the gate into Lake Manyara NP.  We drove purposefully the 33 km down to the Hot Springs board walk (-3.61759, 35.73864) and then more slowly back taking side loop tracks as we felt inclined.  The park was very busy and we had to wait behind safari cars on several occasions while their clients snapped photos of whatever with their camera phones.  A word of advice - if you are going to come all this way and spend a large sum of money on safaris - buy a decent camera and learn how to use it.

About 25 Safari vehicles at the Hot Springs picnic site with another dozen or so parked along the road out of shot.  Our  RAV4 is in there somewhere.

Yellow-billed Storks and some of the 480 African Spoonbills I counted at the springs.

A magnificent Saddle-billed Stork (this photo is not cropped!). Photo by Jenny.

Zebra in front of hundreds of Great White Pelicans with Lesser Flamingos further out.

Birds in the bush and at the lake were abundant.  I counted 480 African Spoonbills at the Hot Springs alone.  We also saw about 50 Silvery-cheeked Hornbills in a small area of forest where there must have been fruiting trees.  All up we saw 104 birds species plus many mammals.  A great day!

Long-toed Lapwing

Kittlitz's Plover chick

Hippos at Hippo Pool (with a couple of African Jacana)

Wood Sandpiper just arrived from northern Europe.

A birthday highlight for Jenny was her residence visa arriving on Monday.  She can stay until July 2021.  Now I just need mine!  My current tourist visa expires on October 1st - not far off.

Purple Heron

Egyptian Goose - often neglected because they are common but beautiful birds.

African Swamphen

We are planning the future months assuming my permits come through.  We have assorted friends arriving for various reasons (volunteering, studying, tourism) from now until January at least.  In some cases we will catch up with them for a few hours. In other cases we will join them on safari.  Life is good!