About the Park

Lake Manyara sits at the base of the Great Rift Valley escarpment. A 600-metre wall of rock forms the park's western boundary and drops straight down to a narrow strip of forest, grassland, and alkaline lake. Small at 325 km², it is a fraction of the Serengeti. What matters is what you find in that space. The tree-climbing lions made this park famous. Ernest Hemingway wrote about Manyara. The lions here spend their days draped over mahogany and sausage tree branches, sometimes four metres above ground. No one fully agrees why they do this; the behaviour is still poorly understood. It happens in very few places in Africa. Manyara is the most reliable. The lake covers two-thirds of the park. Shallow, alkaline, rich in cyanobacteria, it supports one of Africa's great flamingo congregations. At peak numbers, the shoreline turns pink from horizon to horizon. Between escarpment and water, the park cycles through five distinct habitats in under ten kilometres: groundwater forest, acacia woodland, open grassland, swamp, and lakeshore. For a single day on safari, you see genuine variety. When I build northern circuit itineraries, Manyara is where I start. It is compact, varied, and it gives first-time visitors a proper sense of what the rest of the trip will offer.