Tsavo Safari from Mombasa Airport

Sunday 17/04/2011 and the sun is high and hot in the sky, we  are at the airport to pick Dave and Vivienne whom we have been in communication with for he last 4 months arranging their safari holiday to Tsavo East.


The warm couple arrive at around 11.00 am and we exchange heartfelt greetings like old friends then we depart for Tsavo shortly afterwards.

We begin our mid morning/early afternoon safari game drive heading in the direction of our safari lodge, we are amazed at what we see a short distance into Tsavo East a herd of elephants, zebra in a huge herd and on to Aruba Dam a number of water birds notably the Egyptian Geese. We continue with a hurried safari game drive as we are hungry and we check in to the Red Elephant Safari Lodge.

Red Elephant Safari Lodge is coll and dimly lit, a perfect place for those who want some silence and only noise you can hear is the noise of the bush; birds singing, the distant cry of a hyena, the trumpeting and at time the sight of elephants.

We take our lunch and at 4.15 pm we head out for our safari game drive.

a male waterbuck just which we met just as we were begining our afternoon safari game drive, on the far right

shortly a female joined the male and we captured a family portrait

as we proceeded with our safari in Tsavo east we met this young elephant which was in group of about 12

as we headed to the pipeline (the red tanks) that receiving water all the way from Mzima Springs in Tsavo West National Park the water then flows to Mombasa by the force of gravity

Tsavo was amazing - some parts were green other brown dry as usual, at a distance we could see rain falling in distant area - that explains the dark clouds in the background

we were surprised at elephant feeding verociously at 5.00 pm! No wonder they can feed 170 to 200kg of vegetation in a day! The main reason beyond their great size for eating so many pounds of food each day is that the elephant digestion track is actually poorly adapted to extracting the most out of its vegetative food.

Elephants spend 18 to 20 hours a day feeding, everyday they have to consume 170 to 200kg of vegetation. Fluid intake for the elephant is also enormous 20 to 40 gallons of water a day is required to keep them healthy

on with our safari and we meet a Grants Gazelle, infact we met a huge load of herbivores at a distance, all of them seemed agitated at something; it took sometime before we notice a mane-less lion walking in the far distance. Dave was lucky to see the lion using his binoculars, unlucky Vivienne was not able to see the king of the jungle - Dave made it clear - had I not seen it - I'd have said you making this up!

We also came across two very thin lion cubs, i could amost count all the ribs - they were literaly sticking out of their skins - probably their mother was killed by other lions or she had died of a disease - I wonder for how long they would survive - they mostly walked behind bushes so I couldnt get a nice shot

Classic Tsavo Safari Game drive withred earth and hills

the beautiful helmeted guniea fowl

Dave trying to get a good look at an elephant we met while heading bak to the lodge

To end the evening we met an elephant herd with a young one that had problems using his trunk to get grass and put it to it's mouth, it takes baby elephants a number of years to become truly expert in their use. It is amusing to see the antics of newly born as they try to get used to the limb dangling in front of them!

We have dinner and overnight at the Red elpehant Lodge - a tired lot but impressed.

Day 2 of Tsavo Safari

We wake up very early in the morning by 6.30 am we are out for our safari game drive in Tsavo. We take the same route we took the previous evening with hopes of sighting more game below are some pictures of what we came across

 

Male Impala antelope

Safari Land cruiser dwafed by a giraffe

Elephants on both side of the road - they nearly blocked the way for us we had to do some good waiting before they all crossed the road and allowed us safe passage. In Tsavo (and any other national park or reserve) - animals have the right to the roads.

Three lionesses that we met resting by the roadside, it was like they were waiting for us to come along for they only stayed about 10 minutes then they walked away into the sorrounding bush

Apair of Imapala rams

A monitor Lizard

Granst Gazelle just as we were about to exit Tsavo East and end our safari

Mocabe Tours and Safari Senior Tour Leader Cornaleus Mwaruma with our guests Vivienne on the Right and David on the Left at Tsavo East's Bachuma Gate before rejoining Mombasa Road for a trip to Kilifi for the couples onward holiday plans.

We take this chance to wish all our friends and their families Happy Easter holidays

MOCABE TOURS AND SAFARIS

Web: http://www.mocabesafaris.com/

The Last Lions

2 Days Tsavo East Safari - End 2010, Begin 2011 in Tsavo East

DAY 1 OF 2 DAYS TSAVO EAST SAFARI 

Amazing how Tsavo East National Park (Kenya) can present a new experience every time you go there. This 'End 2010, begin 2011 - 2 Days Tsavo East  Safari' wasn't short of it's new surprises.

Rewind and get on board - back to 31/12/2011 and we are Tsavo East's Bachuma Gate to begin the safari game drive

Pop-up roof of our safari van open and ready for game viewing safari in Tsavo East

Some of the tourists at the Tsavo East National Park taking pictures before entering the park. Between the brown trousered man and the safari minibus is our safari driver guide - Milton Mzee who had just finished with the park entry formalities

Tsavo East's Red Earth was as red as ever, and the grass was brown-dry, temps soaring to about 35 Degrees Centigrade

 a few shrubs that didn't seem to be affected by the hot sun maintained their green, but the Zebras were as rounded as ever - ability to feed on young green grass and hard dried up grass as well is an advantage - you don't loose weight or starve!!

More zebra crossing the road in Tsavo East

We proceed on with our safari and marveling at the hash climatic condition of Tsavo East and we arrive at the Aruba Dam pictured above. Aruba Dam was built in 1952 across the Voi river. The reservoir created by the dam attracts many animals and water birds. We saw many birds and a couple of antelopes - the dam was full of water this time unlike one month ago on our earlier 5 days Tsavo East Amboseli, Tsavo West and Taita Hills Saltlick safari blog (See http://mocabesafaris.blogspot.com/2010/12/normal-0-false-false-false.html ) when it was all dried up indicating that the season Voi river which cuts through Tsavo East was only a tickle and the waters were not reaching the dam

The Dried up Aruba Dam in Tsavo East as it was in 25th of November 2010.

We continue with safari game drive upstream of the Tsavo river and discover an area of lush green unlike the other part of Tsavo that we had covered in our safari so far.  In this green area of Tsavo we come across a young Giraffe-Gazelle - The Gerenuk - a kind of gazelle particular to Tsavo and Samburu in Northern Kenya, which is a browser unlike all other gazelle which are grazers

 

and a lone elephant

and the beautiful lesser kudu

and more elephants

 

Then we proceeded deeper into Tsavo with our Safari. We were amazed at the change in vegetation - the inner part looked green and the views of the hills that punctuate the landscape was breathtaking

Then there was a stacatto over our HF radio - there was a lion feeding on a buffalo remains, the safari turned into a race as we headed to see the lion(s).

First we encounter 2 lions and manage to photograph one on top of a rocky hill

and the lion beside it's meal

Unease with our presence the lioness left her meal

 and walked a short distance away

 Just then we noticed she wasn't alone, taking cover from the hot sun were six lionesses, 1 lion (male) and 2 cubs

after the lion sighting we head to the Lion Hill Camp (a safari camp with great views over the Tsavo East plains) for lunch.

After lunch at the Lion Hill Safari camp we went out for the afternoon game drive, very rewarding safari game drive,  we saw a wide variety of animals some which we had seen earlier but all in a new setting, in a new drama, like two zebras that picked a fight that lasted for quite sometime and it made us all laugh. After a while a group of other Zebras joined in the fight, all of them attacking one particular Zebra - may be a case of 'you are the one on the wrong buddy, if it takes a beating from all of us for you to know that, so be it!!'

The Zebra at the front was the offender

 The offender (on the right hand side) running away from the 'law and order enforcers'

Elephants that began something like a 'hand - or is it trunk shake' that turned into a fight, didn't last very long and most of it happened behind a bush so we couldn't take pictures

A buffalo which to us seemed like was dying, only happened to be wallowing in the mud and scratching itself against the ground

 after it was done wallowing it looked like a hippo with long legs and horns!

This was a day for us to see the elephant wallowing too

and the beautiful Grant's Gazelle

We saw a couple more elephants, zebra, buffalo and a variety of birds then we headed on to the Lion Hill Safari camp for dinner and overnight.

A singing quartet that had come to the camp entertained the guest as we ushered in the new Year then we head off to catch some sleep to wake up early for the next day's safari game viewing drive

DAY 2 OF 2 DAYS TSAVO EAST SAFARI

The morning began with elephant sightings

in the picture is our safari driver guide - Milton Mzee, in the background are the elephants behind an electric fence in Tsavo East

We meet a young and very beautiful gerenuk above

and more herds of elephants in our safari game drive

 And weaver birds in their thousands, the actually made a cloud as they flew away from one tree to another

 And more elephants - others with new additions to their families

 Then we met one of the most impressively tusked elephants of Tsavo East

Finally we exit Tsavo East and end our safari at the Bachuma Gate. In the picture is our safari guide Milton Mkilo and our guests turned good friends - Colette and Pat from England.

For an itineray of the above safari 

see http://www.mocabesafaris.com/2DaysTsavoEastSafari.htm

Our Website :  www.mocabesafaris.com

Our email Address: info@mocabesafaris.com