Lake Manyara - 22.sept

Last day of our safari tour - exploring more of Lake Manyara in the morning and heading back to Arusha in the afternoon, arriving in town by 6-7pm. That was the plan at least ;)

Headed happily towards the hot springs at the furthest point in the park, some 37km from the gate, nice and early, yet again getting up at 6am. On our way we saw tons of giraffes walking around and munching away at the bushes, saw also lots and lots of elephants - they are everywhere here! Saw lots of all kinds of birds whose names I can't remember, amongst them many flamingos and pelicans.

So we made it to he springs, hot springs being truly hot with the water at about 80 degrees coming out of the hill. When turning back the car made a funny noise, guide gets out and looks under the car. Two guys get out as well and stare at the bottom of the car discussing. We all get out and have a look. We see a big pole or a pipe or a rod laying on the ground by the back wheels, still connected on the other end to the car by the front wheels. After a while it is figured out that this is the rod that provides four wheel drive and connects back set of wheels to the front ones :) Luckily there were other cars there to provide us tools and means of tying the rod to the car so we could keep going. It took about an hour or so to get it all done as they tried to first remove it and then tie it and then tie it one more time as the ropes where not holding. So finally start the journey back, slowly, so incredibly slowly.

All I could think of was us not getting stuck in a herd of elephants and not being able to drive away if things get dangerous. In the parks it is strictly prohibited to get out of the car as the wildlife is quick and they do attack. There have been numerous cases where people get out of the car nevertheless and are killed by lions or other animals - so no getting out of the car in the park! There are special picnic areas with facilities where we have lunch and can use the toilets. Ok, so on we go. We get to drive about 5km when the rod fell off with a huge clunk that made everybody jump on their seats :)

Our ride continued after a while with the front connection piece of the rod jumping up and down making loud noises. We continued on with less than 5km/h, stopping every time we encountered another car passing. Our guide telling each car our sad story which made our journey even slower. After a while, perhaps another 45 minutes, he found a car with right tools so he could remove the noisy connection piece. All of us being alert trying to spot any lions or other animals approaching the car while our guide is half way underneath the car pretending to be the mechanic.

Another problem was tsetse flies occasional appearance. They are quite a bit bigger than regular flies, they bite and carry a dangerous disease. Finally we were on a move again! This time with no noise so we got to go at a normal speed. In about 30 meters another part fell of the car with a loud clunk :D We had been driving in the park now already for more than 2.5 hours. Everybody was so indifferent by now that we did not even make a comment about the car falling apart. All we wanted was to get out of the park and back to Arusha as soon as possible. We were hungry and tired of the midday heat and fighting off the flies.

At least the car was miraculously still moving. We all hoped that there are no hills coming up as we had lost the four wheel drive and we weren't sure if there are any other parts about to fall off anytime soon. We made it out of the park eventually, guide drove to the closest village to fix the car. Meanwhile we looked around and had few cold drinks at a local pub :) Miraculously, 50 minutes later the car was all fixed and well, headed back to the camp, made the guides pack up in 20 minutes and started the 2.5h drive back to Arusha at half past 4. This time all went smoothly - arrived in town by night fall. We were all dropped off at our accommodation.

Farewells followed. Our group included 2 guys from Netherlands, one of them knowing all about the local animals and gladly sharing his knowledge throughout the trip - it was wonderful. One world traveler from Brazil, he had been traveling for the past 2 years and was planning to continue for another 2 years. And then a girl from Israel. That made total 6 of us. Have everybody's contacts to be able to keep in touch in the future.

We refused to stay at the same private hotel so we just picked the first hotel where we stopped the car and booked a room. Quick shower, dinner at a nearby restaurant and off to bed we went exhausted from this complicated day.