We got to Lake Manyara around noon and had lunch at the Serene Lodge while overlooking the Manyara Conservation area. Since we had been going non-stop of hiking and tourning, we decided to take the afternoon to nap and relax and do a shorter evening game drive.
The evening game drive was amazing, even though we were only out for about 2 hours and only made it probably 3 miles into the Conservation area. After registering, we drove for a short while and came upon a huge troupe of baboons. There were more than 30 of them - ranging from practically newborn to quite old. They were so amusing and we sat there for over 30 minutes just watching them interact with each other. There was the old baboon who watched over everyone, the young siblings who like to wrestle with each other and whoever else they could goad into it, and the young one who just ran around poking people trying to get someone to play with them. At one point, 3 or 4 climbed on the vehicle in front of us, which prompted the driver to start and rev the engine to scare them away. Baboons are cute, but you don't want to get too up close and personal with them! Along with the baboons, we saw some monkeys, but they were more shy and didn't come as close to the road.
After watching the baboons, we drove a little bit further in and came upon an elephant having dinner. We parked along the side of the road and watched the elephant. He started out about 20-25 feet from us, but then kept getting closer and closer as he found food to eat. At one point, he had an itch and scratched his back against a tree, which was interesting to see and hear! He ended up chewing on some grass that was about 5-8 feet from our Land Cruiser. The 4 of us were standing up and looking out the top and we probably looked hilarious when his tusks swung toward us because we all backed up a bit. Malisa assured us that the elephant was harmless as long as he was eating. We were comforted by the fact Malisa never took his eyes off the elephant and would have gotten us out of there quickly if the elephant started showing any signs of aggression!
After the game drive, we went back to the Lodge for another relaxing evening. We had a beer with Malisa and all decided to sleep in the next morning - 10am start time!
In the morning we had breakfast and went back to the Conservation area for our last game drive. We saw more baboons, a family of elephants, a tower of giraffes, a lot of cape buffalo, more hippos, zebra, and monkeys. We had a boxed lunch at a nice picnic spot and then started to head toward Arusha.
On our way to Arusha we stopped at a road side stop so Kristin and Jeff could pick up some tanzanite (a gem found in Tanzania) and we also stopped at the Cultural Center for some shopping. After picking up our climb bags at the Arusha Hotel and having our last conversation with Tillya, we had our last African meal in Arusha and headed to the airport for the long trip home.
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