Our Manyara Story - Jean du Plessis reflects on Lake Manyara National Park and the power of positive tourism

Our Manyara Story

Known as Wayo's heart, we invite you to see Wayo Manyara Green Camp through the eyes of Jean du Plessis, who found this incredible camp location 16 years ago. Click on the link below.

The Manyara Story - reflections from the field by Jean du Plessis

I’m often asked which wild place is my personal favourite. Without fail, my mind drifts back to the beach of the Endabash River. The rocks and the waterfall, the forest and the escarpment towering above it all. The river slowly snaking around its southern bend. Early morning light catching the escarpment as clouds spill out of the Marang Forest.

Elephants are never far away often already standing in the river. There’s usually a handful of old buffalo tucked into the shade, troops of baboons moving through the trees, and the lazy flight of hamerkop overhead, mixed with the calls of turacos and orioles. It’s a place that stays with you.

Lake Manyara National Park, together with Manyara Green Camp, is by far the most perfect place to start or finish any Northern Tanzanian safari. Manyara Green Camp is one of the very few camps in Tanzania where the wildlife truly comes to you. It’s an ideal beginning to a safari, with slower mornings to recover from travel, without ever feeling removed from nature or wildlife. In the same way, it’s the perfect place to decompress at the end of a journey, to slow down, reflect, and reset after the intensity of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro.

Manyara is too often measured against its much larger neighbours and unfairly labelled as less productive. In reality, it holds an extraordinary diversity of ecosystems within a remarkably compact area far more varied, kilometre for kilometre, than either Tarangire or the Serengeti. With new management in the park and successful invasive bush clearing over recent years, Manyara now feels noticeably more open, with daily lion and leopard sightings. Huge herds of elephants are once again moving into the open spaces too, reshaping the landscape and gradually opening up the park even further.

It’s a park that rewards time, patience, and perspective a perfect place for a ‘slow safari’.

Jean du Plessis, Founder, Wayo Africa

The Itinerary

Wayo Manyara Green Camp fits beautifully within a safari itinerary. Heading from Arusha, you can stop off at our Activities Centre in Mto Wa Mbu to enjoy a village tour and a local lunch. Then, leaving the traffic behind, you set out on a game drive into the heart of the park, arriving at the camp set alongside the crashing waterfalls of the Endabash River.

Sundowners and dinner are enjoyed along the river bed, before you head to your lovingly, locally handcrafted tent where the electric retractable roof invites stargazing as you fall asleep.

Game drives and a canoe safari on the lake are activities to look forward to the next day, followed by a dusk game drive back to camp and overnight.

Perfect for a 2 or 3-night stay, you can then head onto Ngorongoro and into the Serengeti beyond.

Stay 5 Pay 4

Wayo Manyara Green Camp makes up part of our STAY 5 PAY 4 circuit offer where, with any 5 nights booked between Wayo Manyara Green Camp and Wayo Serengeti Green Camp, you receive one night free.

ENQUIRIES

For safari planning and camp availability enquiries, please contact the team on [email protected] or +255 695 541 010.