We decided to take a break over New Year and go away to the African bush for a few nights. Er .... well, let me rephrase that sentence - I decided that if I didn't book for us to go away somewhere over New Year then hubby would never get the break which he deserves & the whole family would be stuck on the farm for New Year watching the crops grow - ha ha ! You know how difficult it is for me to tear him away from his beloved farm ("Why do you want to go away somewhere darling, when we have all this beauty around us to enjoy right here ?") - so he sat on the veranda of our room at Lake Manyara - which had views reaching as far as our farm & beyond, and would make comments like 'Oh my goodness, looks like there is rain headed for the farm this afternoon' .... to which I would just yawn and look the other way. Honestly ! Anyway, all said and done he DID manage to relax and about a day into our little trip he said he was so glad we got away (and what a good idea of his it was, didn't I think ?!)
We spent the first part of our trip at the Lake Manyara Serena Hotel. Now, we visited this hotel for lunch a little over a year ago when we were staying in the same area, and I wrote a detailed post on it over here which you really should read if you are interested, as in there are many photo's of the hotel which don't appear in this post (I never like to duplicate photo's on the blog), aswell as a little background about the hotel and it's unusual - and quite stunning - design.
The very first (top) photo shows the rooms at the hotel - each 'rondawel' (round hut) style room consisting of 2 upstairs and 2 downstairs units. We had a family room on the ground floor, and it was lovely. The rooms all have their own private verandas with views out over the Lake (although the bush in front of the rooms is quite overgrown after all the recent rain, which obscures the view quite a bit).Anyway, the top photo is one I took 'for the blog' from directly in front of our room, past all the overgrowth (hubby and daughter refused to walk with me through all that bush - honestly !) And - for those of you who know me 'in the flesh' - yes, I really DID do it in wedge heels. Because - for those of you who know me 'in blog land' and have never seen my actual feet (!!) - I do not go anywhere without wedge heels. No, not even at home on the farm and not even in the bush. And for my darling mother - no, Mum, I did NOT trip & break my neck !! (But it's bound to happen one day !)
This photo above, is the view we had from our breakfast table, looking out on to the dining area which spills out on to the veranda. Isn't it lovely and sunny and warm looking ?
The hotel had a fantastic African themed dinner laid on for the night of the 31st, to see the New Year in. Now, as this was a family holiday I did not want the kids to miss out on anything, but I am also one of those mothers who believes that kids should be in bed at a set time, and certainly not up late at night in a hotel dining room/dinner. But I would also never leave my kids with a strange babysitter in a hotel room .... so the kids came with us .... although we didn't stay until midnight, but left for our room at 10.30 pm .... our daughter was completely hyped up (also a result of the Coke she was allowed as a 'special' treat - rocket fuel for kids !) and our son slept beside the table in his pram the entire time !The dinner. Ooohhh - the dinner. What can I say ? Even I, an African, was blown away - so I can only imagine how all the tourists enjoyed the evening. It was held in a 'specially built open air 'boma' (structure built with grass/reed sides, traditionally used to keep livestock in at night) in the hotel grounds. On arrival we were each given a hollowed out coconut with a straw to drink the milk through by a lady dressed in tradtional African attire .... we were shown to our table underneath the stars .... decked out in traditional Maasai cloth/blankets ..... (see above).
The meal consisted of a huge array of traditional African foods ..... all served buffet style, many of the dishes were cooked over open fires in front of us. Throughout the night we were entertained by a series of African dancers (showcasing dances from the different regions of Tanzania) - all in different (authentic) tribal dress. We also had an excellent acrobatic show (acrobat shows are quite common in Tanzania in many of the city restaurants and hotels, and these guys were GOOD), live band and fire eating (don't ask !) ... all in all it was a wonderful, wonderful evening and captured the very essence of the African people. (The photo's I took of all the live entertainment really did not come out very well as it was so dark, so I decided not to put them on the blog.) The following day was spent around the hotel pool (above) .... known as the 'Horizon View' pool due to it's edge which has been designed so as to 'merge' with the lake beyond (you can see a photo of it in the post mentioned at the beginning of this one)
The pool bar has stunning views out across the lake .... anytime is 'Kili' time ..... the photo above is of my husband's favourite Tanzanian beer 'Kilimanjaro Lager' ......The photo below shows some of the lovely local paintings which were sold by the artists themselves in the hotel gardens, just outside the dining room.
This sign below, is one we passed each time we walked to our room - and I thought that I just HAD to take a photo of it to show all my American readers .... it says 'This Tree Was Planted By Ted Turner - Founder of CNN and CNN International'. There are trees planted by famous people throughout the lodge grounds, I think that whenever someone famous comes to stay, they ask them to plant a tree. The Serena group is quite big on conservation and the re planting of trees and have tree nurseries and projects on the go the whole time, which I think is GREAT.
So, that was the first part of our safari (a trip anywhere here - even to the city for a day's shopping - is called a 'safari') .... the second part will follow shortly .... when we headed upwards to the Ngorongoro Crater. I'll be back soon ! 
