30 July -- Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Farm House (by David)

After a buffet breakfast at the Lake Manyara Hotel, we headed out for our half-day safari via Land rover in the Lake Manyara National Park. Almost immediately upon entering the park, we drove past a troupe of baboons clamoring around on the ground. Shortly thereafter, we stopped for photos of a large elephant in a wooded area. Other animals this day included a huge variety of birds, a giraffe delicately eating leaves with its lips and mouth on tree branches covered with long white thorns, zebras, and hippos. In the hippo pond, we enjoyed watching a variety of birds, including saddle bills, sacred ibis and Egyptian ducks.

After the safari, we made our way to the Ngorongoro Farm House at about 3:00 p.m., where we were met with cool, moist, scented hand towels and sweet ice tea flavored with lemon grass. Just what we needed! (I wont describe what the hand towels looked like after we wiped our dusty hands and face on them!) The Farm House was actually a splendid resort with acres of coffee plants, bananas, sunflowers, potatoes, etc. The grounds also contained fruit trees and flowers that were planted to attract birds. Our itinerary described the farm as a 500 acre coffee farm located only 4kms from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Loldurate gate. The Farm House included bungalows "rustically decorated with local materials" as described by our itinerary. We found out that the Farm House was a mere two years old.

Lunch at Farm House was taken in a stunning dining room with an exposed wood ceiling that arched up like the interior of a barn with chandeliers suspended above the tables. (The exterior of the main building was covered with thatched roof.) We were treated to a bowl of organic salad greens with a honey balsamic dressing, spaghetti bolognaise, fish stew, snow peas and for dessert, caramelized orange slices with fresh mint ice cream. Our server let us know that almost everything we ate had been grown and/or processed on the farm.

After lunch, David and Roger napped for over an hour while Caroline and Linda took a two-hour farm tour. After our nap, we took coffee out by a beautiful swimming pool while our host, Johann told us to keep our eyes out for a nest of love birds and an owl that we had been hearing calling near our rooms. We did find the love birds just at sunset…there must have been a dozen of them, screeching and flying around a tree near the pool.

Just before dinner, we watched the evening critters that came out just as the sun was setting. Nightjars and yellow bats competed for flying insects. The bats zipped by us, only a couple of feet from our heads. We also saw some kind of deer walk right past our deck out on the Rift Valley, pausing to stare at us for a couple of seconds. That same evening, we were amazed by the brightness and multitude of stars, not to mention the constellations that we were totally unfamiliar with from the other side of the globe.

For dinner, we had short ribs with an orange sauce, some kind of fish stew, (perhaps some kind of beef?) snow peas, green peppers stuffed with veggies and risotto and salad with avocado. For dessert we had our choice of slices of passion fruit log (cake), chocolate cake and some kind of citrusy ice-cream. A tremendous dinner that we all enjoyed!