Tsavo National Park

Kenya’s largest national park, the vast expanse of Tsavo covers a total of 23.000 km2, which makes it one of the largest parks on the whole continent. It is divided into western and eastern sections by the main road and railway line between the country’s two biggest cities, Nairobi and Mombasa. The park is home to the country’s largest population of elephants, which numbers around 12,000 head, and the rare black rhinoceros as well as many large baobab trees. From  the small western section of Tsavo, in clear weather you can see the snowy peak of Kilimanjaro. This section of the park is very hilly, the landscape dominated by recent volcanic activity. Here you can also find a number of wetlands and the impressive Mzima springs, with their hippopotamus and crocodiles, where around 220 million liters of crystal clear water gushes forth from the ground every day, a small proportion of which is enough to supply Mombassa with water via a long pipeline. This underground spring water has its original source in the rainfall on Kilimanjaro and the Chyulu Hills.

Generally speaking Tsavo has good populations of buffalo, giraffe, zebra, warthog and many antelope species, while lions, leopards, cheetahs and spotted hyena are all common. Here you will also find a number of species of apes, and over 600 species of bird have been registered here. The biggest bird of them all, the ostrich, is represented by its red-legged southern variant in Tsavo West, while the northern variant with blue legs can be found in Tsavo East. Tsavo East is flatter and drier, but cutting through it is the large River Galana, where it is possible to see many hippopotamus and crocodile here, especially around the waterfall of Lugard´s Falls. There are no views of Kilimanjaro from here, but you do get the feeling of being able to see to the ends of the earth from the top of some of the hills.

The park is also one of the places where you can most clearly see the termite mounds; there are many of them, they are big and have the same rusty red colour as the earth they are made of. It has been calculated that termites are the savannahs most numerous animal, it is also the animal which accounts for the most total weight!  While the park might not be the most varied of landscapes, it is the large animals and birdlife that are most in focus here in Tsavo. The park lies some 300 km south east of Nairobi, while it is only around 200 km from Mombasa. This means many of the peple visiting Tsavo are taking a short break from a beach holiday on the Indian Ocean coast with a short Kenya safari of 2-3 days.

Highlights:

   •      The beautiful hilly and very varied nature of Tsavo West

   •      The nearly endless dry vistas and beautiful red soils of Tsavo East

High season: January to March and July to October