4 Days Safari - Tsavo East, Tsavo West and Amboseli

After Mombasa came a 4 day safari through 3 parks all the way back to Nairobi. The landscape was amazing and varied.

On the way we stopped by a curio shop - of which there are many - and bought some Kenyan souvenirs and took some pictures with the wood carvers.

Tsavo East

Here the soil is red and the park is quite flat, making for some great game viewing. 

We managed to see 4 of the big 5 on this day (leopard, cheetah, lion and buffalo)! Alfani, our guide, told us that we were his first clients to see 4 in one day. 

We stayed at a lodge in the middle of the park, right by a watering hole, so the elephants were our neighbours! The elephants in the park are as red as the soil - it's really a wonderful sight! 

Tsavo West

The views in Tsavo East are amazing, the park is quite hilly, but also full of trees and bushes, making it difficult for viewing. 

The lodge hangs some bait every night for a leopard to come and feed on it. This has apparently been done at this lodge since the colonial days and has become a tradition that is continued. Obviously it also makes the tourists happy, as it is at least a guarantee of seeing one leopard during the stay at Tsavo West. There is also a "fake" watering hole right next to the terrace and I saw elephants and buffaloes coming for a drink and shower there. 

The park also contains a Rhino Sanctuary, but it is so full of bushes and trees that although there are more than 50 Rhinos in it, we did not see a single one! Oh well... we saw them at Lake Nakuru. 

We had to wake up at 5:30 to make the drive to Amboselli - Papa woke up for some reason thinking it was 10:10 and shocked me to only then realise it was actually 8:10 or something - which was still not correct and then realising it was 4:20. Obviously after that shot of adrenaline it was not easy to sleep for another hour or two - rather amusing in hindsight, but really not the way one expects to be woken up!

On our way to Amboseli, we passed by the Mzima springs, where a lot of the tap water which goes to Mombasa originates. The water flows through the volcanic rocks that act like sponges and gets cleansed that way. At the springs we saw lots of different vegetation, some hippos, fish and a crocodile. 

Amboseli

Amboseli is much flatter - a savannah. The elephants here are grey and seem larger with longer tusks. There are a lot of Masaai walking around the park, clearly they're not afraid of the wild animals. They come into the park when there is not enough water outside it for their cattle. They seem like very friendly people. We didn't go to their village because it does seem rather odd to go there and get a show put on for you and actually one is watching people like we watch animals in a zoo - not really my kind of thing. 

From Amboseli we had an amazing view of the Kilimanjaro! The snow does seem to have melted quite a bit and is only present at the tip; it will probably only be a few more years until it's completely gone. We saw so many hippos here! And during the game drive this morning we were lucky enough to see a pride of lions, they were so cute, hiding in the grass trying to find some shade!