177 : Yellow-billed Stork

Yellow-billed Stork - Mycteria ibis

Back to the start of our Safari. If Safari was Disney World then ride one on our trip was the Hippo Pool at Manyara National Park - this was our Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. The whole trip was a gradual descent from the popular and crowded to the moment we found ourselves as the only human beings for a couple of kilometres with half a million Wildebeeste milling around us singing I'm a Gnu.

Hippo Pools rather than pool should be the right words for this popular spot. There is a car park and a metal fence (you know its not a zoo as it is just a rail to stop you wandering off into the "wilderness" and having a close encounter). On the left side is a small pool (see above) which is used as a wallow (I can count 5 animals in that small space). You get super views of the Hippos jostling for space or attention.

Off stage front is an amazing scene with so much going its hard to pick out everything. Hippos, gazelles, zebras, pelicans, storks, wagtails, hammerkops - it went on an on. I could have spent an hour there picking through but we had to check in at the Treehouse Lodge in time for lunch and Gregory our driver was anxious about the time.

You can see a Yellow-billed stork coming into land at this water hole farther out from the safety rail. What a busy spot !

Hippos will come out of the water in the early morning and evening. Its all about keeping their skin wet. Nothing prepares you for the realisation that the big ones are the size of a 4 x 4 !

If it was the UK it would be Cley or Barn Elms or Minsmere with Hippos, gazelles and giraffes all thrown in. I could spend a week at this spot just watching each animal and bird in turn. Manyara is Africa condensed.

Yellow-billed Stork, Mycteria Ibis
Hippo Pool, Lake Manyara NP, Tanzania
July 2012