Waking up in Tsavo National Park

Our Spot for the Night
 After a star filled night where the milky way shined bright and the wild animal noises woke us up through the night, we made sure there was just enough time to grab a cup of coffee before meeting up with our driver James and heading out for an early morning game drive. We left our camp, Tsavo Sentrim, here in East Tsavo National Park with high hopes and beautiful sunrise colors.

Lioness posing for us
  One of our first surprises of the morning was a lone lioness. She walked out of the shrubs towards us, but then found a nice mound to plop down on for a bit of a rest. This isn't too out of the ordinary since lions do rest for about 18 hours of the day. The road curved back around behind her so we drove around until we had a great angle looking up at her on her dirt mound. After careful examination through pictures and binoculars we deduced that it was the same female lion we saw yesterday. She did glance up at some elephants in the field behind us but she didn't seem overly interested.

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The Two Brothers
   We moved on past fields filled with zebra, elephants, gazelles, buffalo, and ostriches. The morning light and the deep red sand gave the landscape an almost painted look. As I was admiring the view I noticed a few cars up ahead all stopped and looking in the same direction. We pulled up behind them and were greeted with two male Tsavo lions! They were very close to the car but we felt nice and safe inside the vehicle, peering out and taking pictures from the pop top roof. The two lions were resting in the shade, although both did get up, gave us a few big yawns, and ambled over to more shade on the other side of the road. They walked between the stopped cars like it was no big deal.

Erica's new favorite bird: Superb Starling
Descendent of the famous Tsavo man eaters?
  We had enough time to witness a pretty loud and rambunctious elephant fight before heading back to camp for breakfast and to pack. Next stop Tsavo West!



Caution: Impala Crossing
Deedee's favorite, a Cape Buffalo staring us down



 
Location: Tsavo East National Park, Tsavo, Kenya

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