Hippo Pool

A stop on the short circuit

The hippo pool at the northern end of Lake Manyara National Park is where the park’s streams spread out onto the lake floodplain, and where a resident hippo population lies up in shallow water. It is on almost every Manyara itinerary, because it sits within the short northern circuit that a half-day visit can actually cover.

No Tanzanian authority publishes a description, a location or a hippo count for it. TANAPA’s Lake Manyara brochure, its website and its data service name the lake, the groundwater forest, the Marang forest, the escarpment and the hot springs among the park’s attractions; the hippo pool is not among them. Whatever figures are attached to it in travel writing have no source behind them and none appears here.

What is actually there

Open floodplain grass, shallow water, a lot of hippo, and a great many birds. The last of those is the underrated part. The floodplain is one of the seven distinct habitats TANAPA counts within a thirty-kilometre stretch of the park, and the open water and mud here hold pelicans, storks, waders and — when the water and the algae suit them — flamingo on the lake beyond.

TANAPA records more than 400 bird species in the park and says a first-time visitor is likely to see around a hundred of them in a day. The stretch between the forest and the lake shore is where a large proportion of that happens, which is why guides linger here. See bird watching and flamingo watching.

Buffalo and elephant use the same floodplain, and the contrast with the closed groundwater forest a few minutes’ drive north is the clearest illustration in the park of how abruptly Manyara’s habitats change.

Practicalities

The pool is close to the main gate at Mto wa Mbu, so it costs little time. Water levels on the floodplain vary considerably between seasons and the ground near the lake can be very soft; the park’s internal roads are unsurfaced and a standard safari vehicle handles them where an ordinary car does not.

Hippo are dangerous animals and this is a place where they move between water and land. Keep whatever distance the guide sets. Whether visitors may leave the vehicle at any given point is governed by the park’s rules and the situation on the day rather than by anything published site by site.

Whether it earns the stop

Yes, on its own modest terms, and no as a headline. Hippo in shallow water at close range are good value, and the birds around them are better. But this is a twenty-minute stop on a short circuit, not a reason to visit the park, and it will not compare with the hippo pools of the bigger parks.

The case for giving Manyara more than a half day rests on the southern end — the hot springs, the canopy walkway and a night game drive, all of which Manyara permits and few visitors reach.

Common questions