The car ride from the Impala Hotel to Sunny Safari's served as a safe tour around Arusha without attracting the swarm of locals that you'll inevitably encounter when walking alone in the streets. Although Arusha is the main safari tour operator hub of the Northern Circuit we saw very few white people walking around so the car ride got the closest to a tour of Arusha.

Arusha is home to 800,000 people so by itself it has got twice the population of my country making it a big city by our standards. All the roads that we passed through were full of people bustling with activity selling goods or working in their shops which usually double as their homes. The feeling of poverty is immediately apparent, but in spite of this people seem to try their best to gain a decent living where everyone in the family plays a role, no matter the age and gender. If wealth is only for the privileged few, colour isn't, and nobody fears wearing red out of season. In fact one of the most interesting observations is that people here dress whatever they find with no penchant for the current season's fashion. The only exception are the Maasai who are so fashion conscious that their dress code defines their state in their society.

At Sunny Safari's headquarters we met with the face behind all our e-mail correspondence, Ally and after a small brief about the safari and payment of $855 we left on our adventure. Our guide and driver was Pius (alias Papa) who had such an imposing presence makes you at ease under his protection. The driver, Anton, was exceptionally thin especially when standing near papa and his red Nike t-shirt made him easy to spot from anywhere in one's field of vision.

On our way to Lake Manyara we passed by a snake farm and gladly stopped for a visit. The $10 entrance fee was proved its worth as soon as we saw an adult full grown black mamba. The fastest snake in the world isn't actually black but more of a greenish brown colour and it was longer then I expected, measuring about 3m. Amongst other members of the deadly variety we saw a puff adder, spitting cobra, Egyptian cobra, green mamba, rhino viper and the best camouflaged snake of them all, the gibbon viper. The rest of the trip to Lake Manyara was very comfortable and completely uncharacteristic of my previous impression of African roads. The main road which continues till the Ngorongoro Crater could have been a highway in the US as far as the road condition was concerned.

We arrived at Twiga Campsite in Lake Manyara in time for lunch which consisted of tomato salad, cucumbers, green peppers and some carrots covered with mayo. There must have been a development craze in this area because Twiga Campsite is a very modern campsite even compared to European Standards. The camping area is covered with grass, there is a fence enclosing the site, normal ceramic toilets, decent showers with hot water and even a bar. Nah, we were out of Africa once again.

After lunch we went for our first game drive in Lake Manyara. The first thing that attracts your attention is the reddish soil colour that tinges the background with a reddish brown unlike all the other safari locations we've been to. We didn't have to wait for a long time to start experiencing the wonder of the park because after a few minutes we met with a group of baboons lead by a dominant male. The rest of the animals were equally impressive and amazing. Here we saw Zebras, Giraffes, Elephants, Black Monkeys, Vervet Monkeys, Dik Diks, Hippos, Impalas, Wartogs and Mongooses.

The first animals are always the most significant because it's the first time you're seeing them. We were amazed how close we could approach them and they seemed totally undisturbed by our presence. Naturally we stopped at each single animal we saw and we must have nauseated our guide with the constant "Oh how cute, oh how nice" phrases. Both the video and the camera had a hard time keeping up with our clicking.

The peaceful atmosphere of Lake Manyara as well as the variety of birds are what distinguished this park from the others. Birds are plentiful and this was the best bird watching opportunity we had throughout the whole safari. The birds worth mentioning were cranes, pelicans, storks, rollers, bee eaters, hornbills, guinea foul and even the African fish eagle and Goliath heron.

Upon our return we had a shower and a three course dinner with soup, grilled chicken legs, pancakes for dessert, and coffee. Before retiring to sleep we had a drink at the bar until the video camera batteries charged behind the bar counter.