A free upgrade to a middle-tier place, stunning setting overlooking the Serengeti, pool, wifi, buffet, local tribe music performance.
First exposure to masses of animals.
This lodge has basic stone huts rather than a tent in the middle of open plains, lots of little colourful birds flying around.
I was very reluctant to come to this park enroute to Serengeti especially given how quiet of animals it was at the start, but turned out to be a park isolated from other vehicles and came across a herd of elephants and pride of lions lounging around then facing off.
Ngorongoro Rhino Lodge where elephants wander through the camp and the room back verandah allows you to watch animals wander in.
The park has nice water holes where wildebeest and zebras congregate.
Manyara Wildlife is unusual in that rather than buffet, it serves a set course dinner. There's a beautiful setting overlooking the sunset plains and nice cooling pool.
Lake Manyara consists of large open plains.
After crossing the border from Kenya to Tanzania, our new guide Freddie drove us straight to Arusha for lunch. This was a stopover to get lunch and some supplies before heading to Lake Manyara.
The setting is quite nice - there's a large open lawn with tables, ornaments, a fountain and the warm sun shaded by umbrellas was very pleasant. I'd have to admit the clientele seemed largely tourist/safari tours and the menu prices of AUD15 mains (albeit already included in the tour price) reflected this also.
- Beef Tenderloin (300g Kenyan fillet medallions served with onion marmalade, potatoes & rosemary red wine sauce) - the relatively local beef was decent quality and nice tenderness. The sauce added well to the otherwise plain fillet beef flavour;
- Schwarma seafood - sauteed prawns & calamari in garlic lemon served in pita bread with greens, tomato, cucumber & onions and a light garlic yoghurt dressing;
- salad of egg, avocado, lettuce, corn, greens.
The pizza and gelatos also looked like nice options.
During the safari, every lunch was planned to either be at our tented camp or a (less exciting) packed lunch for the road. One day I asked the driver Freddie if there was anywhere to have local food for lunch. He was quite happy to arrange a nice "local lunch" which was cheap and included a walking tour of the village. This took place just after a morning tour at Lake Manyara National Park.
It was an incredibly cheap lunch with a large amount of food for us 2 guests, Freddie and our tour guide and also the mama cook herself. Everything was cooked over wood fire in large pots and the variety was large. It included lots of vegetables, some fish and an excellent pulao rice dish.
This was probably my favourite meal in the entire safari.