Expedition to Tsavo

Hamjambo! Habarini ya asubuhi? Yes I am still alive, much to the demise of more than a few lions of Tsavo West National Park. If you’ve ever watched “The Ghost in the Darkness” we were basically camping for six days in the man-eaters’ territory. There were two other guys in my tent, which even though it was meant to be a four-person tent it was still a little cramped. Also on a random note, only about 10 people showered the whole time we were there (I may not be included in that number) and no guy shaved. So at the moment of writing this I have the makings of a pretty full, red-ish beard. Not sure whether I’m shaving it or not. Overall though, the trip was fantastic. Commence the novel writing.

Day 1-> We started out the trip at 6:30 AM on last Wednesday by driving to a hill overlooking a primary school and the crux of the three adjacent group ranches. After climbing the hill we had our last Wildlife Management lecture in Kenya on top, followed by climbing down to get mobbed by six year olds that were swarming our land cruisers. They have been dubbed Zombie Children in respect to the way they were pouring out from every direction as if we had unknowingly walked into a zombie movie. From there it was a two-hour game drive through Kuku Group Ranch and Tsavo Park to get to Mzima Springs. If this name isn’t familiar to you, I would suggest you look it up online. Mzima springs is the equivalent of a desert oasis, and it is equally gorgeous and teeming with life. There was a pack of about 10 hippos (pronounced e-po’s) relaxing in the water 60 yards off from the observation deck where we were standing, and they were massive. Not a huge fan of them (bad temperaments and all) but the hippos are a key stone species in that environment and without them, the whole system would fail…so I guess they are ok.

Day 2-> The whole day consisted of an excursion into the Chyulu hills for an Environmental Policy lecture on natural resource management of the Tsavo region. Probably the greatest/worst drive ever…great for those of us able to ride outside the hatches of our land cruisers, terrible for those who were driving. The roads [term used loosely] were about 30% rock, 70% pothole for about 2 hours until we hit Chyulu NP. From there the land cruisers morphed into submersibles as the elephant grass, which was about 2.5 meters in height, had completely overgrown the road. So it was basically a blind drive up and through the hills; over cliffs and whatnot that dropped about 400 feet mind you. It was a good drive for sure. And after the lecture near a KWS outpost, there was a hike up the neighboring large-ish hill. Unfortunately, I failed to remember to pack the machete or the spear, so the hike was basically a swim/walk through the grass up the hill. At the top, clear view across the range lands almost all the way to the foothills of Kilimanjaro and also you could see some of the volcanic craters of the surrounding hills. And to make it even better, on a branch of an acacia tree at the very top [I happened to have climbed the tree next to it unknowingly] was a chameleon, which are extremely rare.

Day 3->All day was spent at the camp (exciting I know), with a guest lecture from the head research scientist at Tsavo and a presentation by the students to the faculty of solutions we have come up with for the environmental problems in this region. No big deal.

Day 4->Gulia Rhino Sanctuary. Yup. With the exception that we didn’t see a rhino this day made my trip, I shall explain in a bit. We started off the day by driving to the sanctuary and meeting up with KWS representatives in charge of maintaining the enclosure. From there, with the help of a bit of radio telemetry, we drove to the relative location of a collared rhino in the hopes of spotting it. When it became apparent that the rhino was deep in the bush, we headed to a nearby guesthouse for a lecture. However, on the way there, we spotted a pack of guinea fowl on our left, which wasn’t anything too special, until a leopard burst out of the underbrush not ten yards from us. As my goal for expedition was to spot a leopard, this made my day completely. Unfortunately, the cat was too fast for anyone to even think of raising their cameras for a photo. Oh well. So onto the guesthouse, where the aforementioned KWS gave a lecture on how they monitor the rhino population in the sanctuary; only about 60 rhinos sadly remain of what used to be a population of about 300 due to poaching in the 1980’s… Afterwards, we went on an epic game drive through a region of the park called Rhino Valley and though we saw many different species, no rhinos. Kind of puts the magnitude of the population situation into perspective when there are no rhinos in a rhino sanctuary and Rhino Valley.

Day 5->The day began with a species count in Tsavo. There were four groups that divided certain regions of the park, going for a three hour game drive, recording every species seen and the habitat they were found in. I never realized how numerous Dik Diks are in Tsavo (look em up). Our car was driven by our mechanic here, Harrison [happened to be the driver of my car from Nairobi to KBC], and the man must be part eagle with what he could spot from behind the steering wheel. Let’s just say a jackal, lying down, in four feet of grass, 200 yards off. Mighty impressive for sure. From the game drive we went to a lodge, for a well deserved and much needed swim and relaxation period. Might I add that the back porch of this place had one heck of a view? I don’t know if it was artificial or not, but there was a watering hole about 60 yards off that was quite popular with the local wildlife. Upon leaving the lodge, we were alerted by one of the employees that lions were spotted not too far up ahead, and lo and behold, not 200 yards east, a lioness was lying under an acacia bush right next to the road. As strange as it seemed, she was relatively undisturbed by our vehicles. As we were looking around for the rest of the pride a herd of about 30 buffalo crossed the road 20 yards further along, and it became apparent that we were smack in the middle of a stalk. When the lioness stood up to circle the buffalo we drove further up, just in time to see two more lions moving around behind the pack. I was lucky enough to get a somewhat decent shot of the buffalo grazing with the lions moving in the background. Unfortunately, with the fading light we couldn’t stick around to see how the rest of the story played out. With all this excitement at the end of the day, a few of us decided to sleep around the camp fire that night to see if any visitors graced our campground with their presence. We didn’t see anything but there were lions roaring in the distance around 2 in the morning. Not a bad way to end expedition, as the next day only consisted of packing and rolling out. Sorry for the book.