The lions in the trees
Manyara is the place that made tree-climbing lions famous. They are not a separate subspecies: it is learned behaviour passed on within these particular prides, and it barely occurs elsewhere in Africa.
Seeing them is not guaranteed — the park is small but the forest is thick — and it is worth going with expectations set. When they do appear, draped flat along a branch with their legs hanging down, it is one of the best photographs of the trip.
Baboons everywhere
Manyara has one of the largest baboon concentrations in Africa: troops of a hundred or more crossing the track without so much as glancing at the vehicle. There are vervet monkeys too, the black-faced ones, which are precisely the tumbili we are named after.
Basic rule: windows closed when you stop to eat. The baboons here know exactly what a lunch box is.
The lake and the flamingos
The lake is alkaline and shallow, and its level varies enormously from season to season. When conditions are right it fills with flamingos, pelicans and storks, though it is worth knowing they are not always there: they depend on the algae, and the algae depend on the rain.
It is hippo country too, and they are easy to see from the viewpoint in the northern section.
