Lake Manyara is a picturesque treasure that stretches over 50 kilometers at the base of the rusty-gold 600-meter-high Rift Valley escarpment, with a setting described by Ernest Hemingway as “the finest I had seen in Africa.”

Manyara’s small game-viewing circuit is a veritable microcosm of the Tanzanian safari experience.

The road winds through a lush jungle-like groundwater forest from the entrance gate, where baboon troops of hundreds of individuals lounge casually along the roadside, blue monkeys scamper nimbly between the ancient mahogany trees, dainty bushbuck tread warily through the shadows, and outsized forest hornbills honk cacophonously in the high canopy.

The grassy floodplain, with its broad vistas eastward over the alkaline lake to the jagged blue volcanic hills that rise from the limitless Maasai Steppes, contrasts with the intimacy of the woodland.

Large herds of buffalo, wildebeest, and zebra, as well as giraffes — some of which are so dark in color that they look black from a distance – assemble on these grassy plains.

Manyara’s famed tree-climbing lions and massively tusked elephants frequent a short area of acacia forest inland of the river. The small Kirk’s dik-dik forages in the shadow of the acacias, as squadrons of banded mongoose dart between them. In the far south of the park, klipspringer pairs are frequently observed silhouetted on the rocks above a field of scorching hot springs that steams and bubbles near to the lakeshore.

Manyara is an excellent place to start learning about Tanzania’s avifauna. There are over 400 species reported, and even a first-time visitor to Africa may safely expect to see 100 of them in a single day.

Thousands of pink-hued flamingos on their annual migration, as well as other huge waterbirds like pelicans, cormorants, and storks, are among the highlights.

Lake Manyara National Park is located in Tanzania.

Size: 330 square kilometers (127 square miles), including up to 200 square kilometers (77 square miles) of lake when water levels are high.

Tanzania’s northern region. The entry gate is 1.5 hours (126 kilometers/80 miles) west of Arusha, on a freshly paved road near Mto wa Mbu, an ethnically mixed market town.