Circle Kenya Safari Begins

Geranuk

Silhouette of a eagle

Let the African safari begin! Last night we picked up my sister Lea, and Rebecca and Alison from the Nairobi International Airport. We said goodbye and good luck to Joe after transferring one more baseball4africa equipment bag hand carried over by Lea. Then the three girls, Jack, Jim, and myself all piled into a taxi van and jetted back to Acacia Camp for one more night before hitting the road for an all-out wildlife tour of Kenya.

  
   We were able to see zebras, gazelles, and wildebeest on the night drive into Acacia camp as well as tree hyrax, bush babies, and a couple of genets that were expertly spotted way up in a tree by Rebecca. In the morning we had just enough time to eat a quick breakfast, introduce the girls to Eliot, the pain-in-the-ass two year old eland, load our stuff into our safari vehicle and head out.

Male Lion framed by the bush

Intimidation or just a yawn?

    It was a long five hour drive down the Mombasa Highway to our first stop, Tsavo East National Park. We passed through many villages and road-side towns on the way, but really kept my attention during the drive was the construction of a brand new railroad track which the Chinese are building to ship containers and supplies in from the Mombasa ports. China has done a ton of work on the infrastructure of Kenya which is great, although some local Kenyans fear that China is gaining too much influence and power here. It is definitely something to keep an eye on in the future. We also passed into a different climate zone where ancient baobab trees thrive. Having very spongy wood, the baobab trees are some of the only trees not cut down for timber, firewood, or carvings.

Possible descendant of the man-eating lions of Tsavo

   Tsavo East is the largest national park in Kenya, and is the site of the infamous man-eating lions of “Ghost in the Darkness” fame. We saw a lot of hoofstock on our way into our tent camp, like waterbuck, gazelles, dik-dik, and oryx, plus many beautiful birds. After a quick tour of camp and an even quicker lunch we jumped back into the truck to head out on our afternoon game drive with our driver James. It may have been the first timer’s luck of Alison, or some saved up karma from having monkeys raid our tent a few days before, but the first animal we come across is a huge dead eland with two very full looking male lions hanging out nearby. As we were taking pictures both lions sauntered towards the car, one going in front and the other behind. They crossed the dirt road and met up on the other side near the carcass of the eland just to plop down side by side, batting at each other playfully. At this point a few more cars had come upon the scene so we decided to head off in search of other animals.

Eland = Lion Food

   We ended up seeing jackals, bat-eared foxes, eagles, secretary birds, ground hornbills, geranuks, impala, baboons, and some absolutely mammoth bull elephants. The elephants take the red color of the soil here in Tsavo and we may have seen not just the biggest tusker in this park, but maybe in all of Kenya. We did come back at the end of the drive to check on the lions to find them still there, but we couldn’t stay long. Another driver was in a bit of trouble with a flat tire about 500 meters up the road and he did not want to get out of the vehicle to fix it. So we had to drive up and block the view of the lions (who hopefully were still full) while our driver got out to help jack up the other car and change the tire. The two drivers handled it with skill and speed, although we could all sense their trepidation after the lions perked up at the sight of people moving around outside their vehicles. Luckily we did not have a reenactment of ‘Ghost in the Darkness’ this time. 

    We made it back to our beautiful tent camp called Tsavo Sentrim Camp and plotted out our next days plan while eating dinner and watching animals just beyond the dining area.

rare and elusive Bat Eared Fox

Yellow-throated Francolin posed just right