Tsavo
Once a single largest national park. Tsavo has been divided by the Nairobi – Mombasa highway. Tsavo East and Tsavo West are two distinct national parks with different ecosystems. Both are home to a wonderful elephant population. Tsavo East is open, flat and bushy. Tsavo West is characterized by wooded, hilly landscapes and black lava flows. Both parks are an ideal stopover when going to the Kenya coast.
Tsavo East
Tsavo East National Park is a gem among the world’s wild spaces. A pristine wilderness. It is one of the oldest and largest parks in Kenya. And is host to a greater biodiversity than any other park in the world. It is here that the northern and southern forms of fauna meet.
Situated in a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert, this park is a wildlife photographer’s dream. Large herds of dust-red elephants roaming the vast scrubland plains. The Yatta plateau, standing at 1000 ft high and stretching for roughly 180 miles, can attribute its existence to the planet’s largest lava flow.
Tsavo East has its core area to the south of the park. There are very few camps and lodges. You can set off on a game drive across the seemingly empty wilderness and return to camp three hours later without having seen a single other vehicle. You often have the park to yourself, watching the wildlife under a huge sky.
Tsavo West
Tsavo West National Park consists of a huge variety of landscapes. Ranging from swamps, natural springs and rocky peaks, to extinct volcanic cones, rolling plains and sharp outcrops dusted with greenery. The safaris are concentrated in the north of the park, which has magnificent landscapes and a good network of gravel roads.
highlights
Large Tuskers
Over 10,000 elephants call Tsavo home, some of them the last remaining large tuskers found anywhere. The elephants of Tsavo appear red in color due to constantly dust-bathing with the park’s fine red volcanic soil.
Lugard’s Fall
Lugard falls, named after Frederick Lugard, who passed this place on his way to Uganda are located on the Galana river in Tsavo East national park. This site is one of few points in the park where visitors can alight from their vehicles. There are several viewpoints along this stretch of river, some of which are good spots for a closer look at the falls, to see crocodiles, rock patterns formed from cooled lava and the Yatta plateau in the distance.
Wildlife/birdlife
Besides large numbers of elephants and good lion prides, Tsavo has a good number of other wildlife. There are good chances of seeing black rhinos in the secure rhino sanctuary. Other common species are giraffe, impala, buffalo and Burchell’s zebra.
The birdlife in the park is outstanding, a bird watcher’s paradise! The white-headed buffalo weaver is a particularly noticeable species, and there are at least eight recorded hornbill species in Tsavo. An all-day game drive to Lake Jipe in the southwest corner of Tsavo West will give superb sightings of many different species of waterbirds.
Mzima Springs
The biggest attraction in Tsavo West is Mzima Springs, a stream of crystal-clear water. With luck you may see some of the night’s animal visitors as well as crocodiles and hippos, while the luxuriant growth around the water reverberates noisily with birds and monkeys.
There are two large pools, connected by a rush of rapids and shaded by stands of spectacular trees. These include date and raffia palms, water berries and figs, whose submerged roots absorb nutrients from the springs and whose fruit is a source of food for the monkeys and birds. At the side of the top pool, a circular underwater viewing chamber has been built at the end of a short pier. You may be lucky to spot hippos, crocodiles and fishes underwater.
Lake Jipe
A small shallow lake, in Tsavo West Lake Jipe straddles the Kenya and Tanzania border, with the border passing through the lake. Jipe has a huge population of hippos, up to 30,000 and a species of tilapia fish only found in Lake Jipe, the Oreochremis Jipe. Boat rides on the lake are a wonderful way to see the prolific water birdlife and the hippos.
DSWT Ithumba
A very unique activity. A chance to visit the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trusts Regeneration Unit and the orphaned elephants that are being re-introduced into the wild.
Guests who stay at Ithumba Hillas, one of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s retreats in Tsavo East, and have adopted a baby elephant have special access to the Trust’s Ithumba Reintegration Unit. Guests can have the privilege of looking at the work done by this unit of rehabilitating orphaned elephants.
Best time to visit
Visiting Tsavo National Parks at any time of the year is good. However during the cooler drier months between June – September makes wildlife viewing easier and the temperatures are more friendly and it’s a great time to take advantage of fully catered mobile camping to explore the vastness of the park. From December to January the temperature in Tsavo can get quite hot. During the rainy season, usually April, May, October and November wildlife viewing can be challenging.
