We left the lodge at 6am when the gate opened. On the quarter of a mile trip we had a group of elephants pass the road just behind us.
We had a short delay at the gate to pay where we saw some monkeys, a baboon, a group of water buck, beautiful birds-which all could be named by Jeremy, and we saw a lone elephant give a warning charge to a safari van that had gotten to close. It was awesome and all at the gate! I should mention the sign-in area was fenced and had something like a cattle guard across the entrance and exit and thick electric wires hanging down that hit the vehicle when driving through (this is for deterring the elephants). We saw tons of elephants, so many it was unbelieveable! We saw to two groups of lions, there were three that were lying very close to the road in the shade, and two males lying in the grass some distance from the road. We saw giraffes, zebras, lots of herd animals. The roads in the park were all pretty nice dirt road some areas had a little road down but not many.
Just a few pictures from the safari...
We got back to the lodge around 9:30am and had a delicious breakfast with everyone.
It was then decided that we would take the road through Tsavo East NP across to Sala gate towards Malindi and come out south of there at Kilifi, and then south on the main road to Mtwapa. Upon entering the park again we saw a spotted hyena mother who had pups in the culvert under the road.
We saw even more elephants, and giraffes, and other animals; it was thrilling. It is interesting to me how the landscape changes so drastically so quickly and how it is all driven by water. It took probably close to 2 hours maybe more to drive through the park. It was about 45 minutes after we got to the other side of Sala gate that we started to see people walking by the road again.
More safari pictures of animals and the changing
landscape.
We stopped in a village to stretch our legs, and we had some children come up to us saying “Chou” (Italian for hello and good-bye). Muli told us a lot of the tourists that pass here on the way to Tsavo are Italian or German. Maryann started saying hi to them in Kiswahili but they either didn’t understand or were too shy. Kiswahili is not the primary language for rural children, it is their own tribal language. Maryann suggested I greet them in German and my “Guten Tag” got a smile out of one of the boys. The two boys and one of the two girls came up to me and shook my hand and I greeted them with “Jambo.” They stood there smiling at me, then Maryann pulled 4 tootsie roll pops out of her backpack and gave one to each of the children. Their smiles got wider, and then they ran back to their place because Jeremy pulled out his camera to take a picture of them. When we left I yelled “Chou” to them and we were off down the road again.
The scenery is really amazing here. There are so many changes in vegetation and soil conditions. When we got close to the coast the forest scenery came alive and we pasted through a couple of towns where the entrance/exit had electric fencing hanging down over the road to keep out the elephants. The people along the road are interesting too. Since it is a back road it doesn’t have heavy traffic so when one vehicle passes by people get back on the road thinking that two vehicles going down the road around the same time is unlikely. Some of the rural people have motorbikes (“piki piki”), some have bicycles, but most walk. The women are dressed very nicely and colorfully and the men are dresses in nice slacks and button-down shirts for the most part.
Just some pictures of the agriculture
We came out on the paved road near Kilifi and headed south towards Mtwapa, just north of Mombasa. Our hotel is Traveller’s Beach Hotel and Club, and it is right on the beach looking out on the Indian Ocean. It has coconut trees, swimming pools, and all-you-can-eat buffets. (Lol It’s an Ashcraft thing.)
Maryann and I grabbed our suits and went for a quick dip in the Indian Ocean. It was a great end an amazing weekend!---Sara
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