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