Tsavo safari in Kenya is double thrill and amusement. Encompassing the twin national parks of Tsavo East and Tsavo West, the Tsavo safari takes you on a wildlife sojourn that involves unadulterated adventure. The park is intercepted into two divisions by the main connecting road between Nairobi and Mombasa.
The Tsavo National Park was established on 1st April, 1948 and is located about 200km south east of Nairobi and is the closest large National Park to Mombasa and makes the ideal safari location if you are staying on the coast anywhere around Mombasa, Bamburi beach or Malindi.
Man Eaters of Tsavo
Written by Colonel JH Patterson, it is a true story and tells of when he was in charge of building a bridge for the Uganda Railway over the Tsavo river in 1898. During the night some of his workers were continually being dragged from their tents and then killed by to large male lions. After some time the workers started to believe that because the lions were so fearless, it was actually the Devil in the shape of a lion that was doing this.
In December 1898, after the death toll had risen to 28 Indian workers and a large number of locals, work on the bridge was brought to a halt, until the lions had been shot. After many nights of waiting, Colonel Patterson did eventually kill the lions, which are now on display in the Chicago Natural History Museum in the USA.
The Red Elephants of Tsavo
You will often hear the elephants in Tsavo being referred to as "Red Elephants" and whist they do sometimes appear to be red, the colour of their skin is no different than that of other elephants, it is just down to the red soil that much of Tsavo is covered in and which the elephants use to cover themselves with, during their dust baths.
At one time there were around 50000 elephants in Tsavo, which were having a detrimental effect on the vegetation and there was talk of culling to decrease their numbers, but before this was put in place, there was a severe drought during the late 1960's and early 70's, during which time the vast numbers of elephants ate pretty much all the edible vegetation and eventually nature took it's course many starved to death, along with many other animals including black rhino. The drought, along with a serious poaching problem, mean that today there are between five and six thousand elephants, but their vastly reduced numbers mean that the vegetation is recovering and in some places is even thicker than before. This along with good conservation mean that the elephant and other animal populations are increasing as well.
Tsavo safari takes you to the Yatta Plateau , the world's longest lava flow. Just above the Athi River , the plateau is about 290 kms in length. Camping, fishing, game viewing and bird watching are things you cannot afford to miss on your Tsavo safari in Kenya.
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