Thursday September 12
After a leisurely breakfast at Sayari we left for the local airstrip for our Costal Air flight to Lake Manyara which was scheduled to depart at 9:45am but in fact left at 9:30am as all passengers were accounted for. Upon landing at about 10:30am, we were a little surprised to see that LM's airport was quite substantial - in spite of a gravel runway it had a bit of a terminal building complete with security X-ray machines and some local shops. Our private guide/driver, Ayoub, met us a couple of minutes after landing and off we set for Sopa Lodge on the rim of the crater. We stopped around 11:15am at a souvenir shop with picnic tables to have an early lunch break as we did not want to arrive at the Ngorogoro conservation area too early as the pass ($100 pp) is only for 24 hours. I bought a couple of African motif scarves in the gift shop - a steal at $15 each - for them at least - they were clearly machine made (maybe in China for all I could tell). We arrived in time for a late lunch at 2:00pm then spent the arvo relaxing and taking photos of the crater which was in all it's splendour as viewed from the lawns of the lodge.
Dinner was again a buffet but all in all was pretty good. We met a Dutch couple in the bar and had a pleasant time chatting to them over pre-dinner drinks.
Friday September 13
An other fire-drill morning - up at 5:30am for a 6:00am departure for the crater to beat the rush and the dust as the early morning due helps keep the dust at bay. We had a great 1/2 day in the crater with fantastic weather (others we met a few days earlier said the mornings could be very cold and cloudy). We spotted many of the biggies (lions, hippos, elephants, buffaloes, zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, 2 rhinos which are very rare in the crater due to poaching) as well as our first flamingos - literally 1000's on the salty lake and some cranes.
As planned we got to our next lodge, Explorians, close to 1pm in time for a leisurely lunch. The lodge is just outside the crater park entrance and is 5* luxury - a lodge, not a camp; in fact it is a member of the SLH group. It has 20 bungalows - suites with a separate living room and a wonder deck for relaxing on. We had a late lunch - it was quite exceptional in terms of choice and quality.
We dagged about for the rest of the arvo - then had an excellent a la carte dinner - we both had snapper. There was a group of 20 kiwi's at the resort - it was their last night both at the lodge and on safari - they were heading home the following morning.
Saturday September 14
We had a quick brekkie at 6am then headed out with Ayoub at 6:45am for Lake Manyara, about an hour's drive away. Lake Manyara is famous for it's lions which lie in the trees but as luck would have it we did not see any - either in the trees or anywhere else. We did see plenty of monkeys and baboons, elephants and to our surprise and delight 3 types of hornbills as well as many other birds. It was a hot and dusty driving around the park - there were very few flamingos apparently they are greatly diminished in number due to environmental factors. We stopped for a bush lunch at a lovely spot overlooking the park and lake complete with picnic tables, shade trees and a cool breeze which kept the tettse flies at bay - there were also toilets, always a welcome relief in the bush. After a 30m lunch stop we drove by the hippo pool which is home to 30+ hippos but due to the heat they were all under-water; there was a very large colony of yellow-billed storks but they were too far away to get any photos; however close in we spotted a spoon-billed stork and a great egret in the hippo pool. We then drove back to Explorians arriving back just after 2:30pm - we had a beer and G&T on our terrace which was most needed after the hot and dusty trip.
After resting, showers and some packing we hit the lodge bar for sixes and some internet as the wifi does not work well (or at all really) in our bungalow. We had another excellent dinner and hit the sack.
Sunday September 15
We had breakfast at 6:30 and hit the rod with Ayoub around 7:30am bound for Little Oliver's Camp in Tarangire Park.