Entering Tsavo West, Kenya

   It is the early morning here in Tsavo, the stars are still out and the generator for the camp it off. The loud rumbling animal noises from the waterhole just outside tell me I should wait a little while before stumbling towards the dining area for a cup of Kenyan coffee. Perfect time for a blog update.

 From East Tsavo all we had to do was drive over the new and old railroad tracks, cross the Mombassa-Nairobi Highway and enter West Tsavo National Park. The area of these two parks makes up around 4% of Kenya's total size. Only a small amount of the park is accessible since driving off road is not permitted, but as David mentioned today, the amount of wildlife you can see just from driving around in a safari vehicle is pretty mind boggling.

Marshal Eagle in Flight

  Impala with babies greeted us shortly after entering the gate. Tiny dik diks peered out from the shrubs as we drove by. And towering pillars of rocks competed with volcanic cinder cones for the view on the horizon. We couldn't make out any manmade objects as far as we could see except for the bright red dirt track we bounced across.

Lesser Kudu mom and baby

Besides dik diks, we came across a plethora of other antelope. Lesser kudu, which the group quickly dubbed 'zebra deer' were seen throughout our drive in. Eland, Grants Gazelles, Waterbuck, Impala, Fringe Eared Oryx, and one very scared Bush buck were all seen as well. The bush buck was sacred out of hiding by a leopard who did its best to elude all of our cameras. The vervet monkeys overhead had a better view of the big cat and were not very happy about it being in their neck of the woods.

  We also got our first good views of some of the big eagle species here in Kenya. One tree overlooking a waterhole had a fish eagle, a bateleur eagle, and a tawny eagle in it. We came across a beautiful marshal eagle up in a tree and a bit later saw another marshal eagle with a freshly captured prey. We finally deduced that it had captured a hyrax, which is like a small marmot type animal.
  We watched the eagle devour its prey for a while as Deedee hummed the 'circle of life' song in the back of the vehicle.

 There is really nothing else in the world quite like driving through these African parks. You never know what might pop out from behind a tree, show up at the waterhole, or even walk right across the road. You are constantly amazed and surprised at what the day brings.

  We added the adorable klipspringer antelope to our list here in Tsavo West. These dainty antelope are only found on big rocky outcroppings and deftly bound from rock to rock.

  One of the surprise photo ops of the day turned out to be the two perfectly posing long tailed shrikes in the photo to the right. Deedee perked up at the mention of 'shrikes' and quickly had everyone watch this video: World's Deadliest