Reviews of Tsavo East (From 8 Acclaimed Safari Experts)

Expert

Emma Gregg –

UK

Visited: Multiple times

Emma is an award-winning travel writer for Rough Guides, National Geographic Traveller, Travel Africa magazine and The Independent.

2 people found this review helpful.

The lesser-known section of Kenya’s biggest wildlife reserve

Overall rating

4/5

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At roughly half the size of Wales, Tsavo East is even larger than its sprawling neighbour, Tsavo West. But while the appealing hill country in the northern part of Tsavo West attracts visitors in droves, relatively few are inspired to explore Tsavo East’s rather relentless, dry, scrubby plains. It therefore appeals to those who prefer to watch elephants or giraffes in peace, without the constant company of other vehicles.

In the dry season, there are huge herds to admire: the animals rarely stray too far from the waterholes or the wooded banks of the Voi and Galana Rivers, where most of Tsavo East’s thinly scattered lodges are found. To me, the Galana riverbanks are the most attractive part of the park, particularly their dense stands of palm trees and the time-worn rocks of Gulard Falls.

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Expert

Brian Jackman –

UK

Visited: Multiple times

Brian is an award winning travel writer, author of safari books and regular contributor to magazines such as BBC Wildlife and Travel Africa.

3 people found this review helpful.

The Land of Red Elephants

Overall rating

4/5

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Tsavo East is Kenya’s largest big game stronghold and is much bigger than neighbouring Tsavo West, from which it is separated by the Nairobi to Mombasa highway. It is also much drier, an arid wilderness renowned for its large herds of red elephants - including some of Africa's last giant tuskers - which acquire their terra cotta colour by wallowing and dust-bathing in Tsavo’s red laterite soil. Tsavo lions are different, too. The males have little or no mane and in my experience tend to be far less relaxed when approached. Maybe they are descendants of the notorious man-eaters who terrorised Tsavo when the railway was being built in the late 19th century.

From the veranda of Voi Safari Lodge high up on its rocky ridge you can look out over a vast sweep of the park that includes the Aruba Dam and Kanderi Swamp – both of which attract lots of game. Another dramatic viewpoint is the granite whaleback of Mudanda Rock that overlooks a favourite watering hole for elephants. And be sure to include a stop at Lugard Falls where the Galana River rushes over a series of foaming rapids.

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Expert

Lizzie Williams –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Lizzie is a reputed guidebook writer and author of the Footprint guides to South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

4 people found this review helpful.

The Big 5 in a wide East African savannah

Overall rating

4/5

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A vast, flat scrubland, broken by the emerald-green meandering Galana River fringed by doum palms, Tsavo East is popular since it offers a pretty sure chance of seeing plenty of wildlife, just half a day’s drive from Kenya’s coastal resorts. Because of its open environment, I’ve always found animals such as cheetah and lion easy to spot on game drives and the highlight for me is seeing elephants covered in the distinctive bright red dust ambling along. I’ve always had great luck at the camps too, and even the floodlit waterholes at the lodges in Voi on the park’s perimeter fence attract scores of elephants, hooved creatures and birds (a spectacle that has sometimes kept me up well into the night). Its vastness too is an attraction as the landscape dotted with occasional baobab trees seemingly goes on forever. The best game-viewing is south of the Galana River, where you may also encounter the steady stream of minibus safaris coming up from the coast, but it’s easy to get away off the two or three beaten tracks, and you may find something special – perhaps a serval or lesser kudu.

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Expert

Anthony Ham –

AU

Visited: Multiple times

Anthony is a photographer and writer for travel magazines and Lonely Planet, including the guides to Kenya and Botswana & Namibia.

5 people found this review helpful.

Tsavo East: Home of the Red Elephants

Overall rating

4/5

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The largest section of the two-part Tsavo National Park – together with Tsavo West, this is Kenya’s largest protected area – Tsavo East is a vast savannah landscape perfect for tracking down big cats. Cheetahs are most easily seen on the plains east of the Aruba Dam, while lions, including the Tsavo males with their famously straggly manes, are found throughout the park – when I was last there one pride’s territory was centred on Aruba Dam. Some 12,500 elephants inhabit the two Tsavo parks – and their habit of bathing in the famous red Tsavo mud gives them an appearance unlike any other elephants in Africa; they’re also more skittish than the elephants of Amboseli thanks to widespread poaching here in the 1980s. Tsavo East is one of the most visited parks in Kenya, thanks to those on short-haul safaris from Mombasa and the coast, but most restrict themselves to short excursions in the park’s south. To escape the crowds, I like to cross the savannah plains that extend north to the Galana River – lion sightings are possible here and the striated rocks of Crocodile Point are extremely pretty.

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Expert

Philip Briggs –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

6 people found this review helpful.

Kenya’s Largest Wilderness Park

Overall rating

4/5

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Kenya’s largest national park at 11,747 square kilometers, Tsavo East is a compelling slice of wilderness situated at the core of a vast block of contiguous conservation areas (among them Tsavo West on the opposite side of the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway). In my experience, some parts of the park offer excellent wildlife viewing, most notably the popular road circuit that follows the Voi River between Voi Gate and Aruba Dam, and the roads running from here to Buchuma Gate via a series of pumped waterholes. In these areas, you’re almost sure to see the reserve’s trademark ‘red’ elephants – their colour attributable to the orange dust characteristic of the park – and might also encounter dry-country antelope such as Grant’s gazelle, fringe-eared oryx and gerenuk. Also worth looking out for here is the introduced Hunter’s hartebeest or hirola, a critically endangered northern Kenya endemic that possibly ranks as the world’s rarest antelope species. I’ve also had good cheetah and rhino sightings in this area. Game drives elsewhere tend to be a bit more hit-and-miss, and wildlife is more skittish.

A scenic highlight of Tsavo East is Mudanda Rock. This immense bald outcrop can be summited on a short flight of steps to offer aerial views over a waterhole that often attracts large elephant and buffalo herds. Another area of interest is the palm-fringed Galana River (Kenya’s second largest), which divides the park’s relatively busy southern sector from the little-visited wilderness area to the north. If you visit the river, do stop at the scenic Lugard’s Falls, which you can explore on foot, keeping an eye out for elephants and other wandering wildlife. Nearby Crocodile Point offers a view back to the waterfall and across the river to a sandbank where you're likely to see hippos, crocodiles and water-associated birds such as African skimmer, palmnut vulture and African fish eagle.

Tsavo East is one of my favourite birding sites in East Africa, as it offers the opportunity to see a number of localised dry-country beauties – among them the golden pipit, rosy-patched bush-shrike, northern carmine bee-eater and golden-bellied starling. Overall, Tsavo East may not offer the best game viewing in Kenya, but away from a few tourist hotspots, the sense of untrammeled wilderness more than compensates.

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Expert

Ariadne van Zandbergen –

ZA

Visited: Wet season

Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines.

9 people found this review helpful.

Tsavo East: one of Africa’s wildest parks

Overall rating

4/5

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Tsavo East is one of Africa’s great wilderness destinations. With very limited accommodation in a huge area, you almost feel like you’ve got the place to yourself. Everything is here which always gives me a sense of anticipation: you never know what you’ll find around the corner or over that hill. This isn’t a place where guides are calling each other on their radios non-stop. What you find, you find by yourself.

Game viewing isn’t as productive as in some of the other great parks in Kenya, but you’ll always see something interesting. The park is home to the very localized, rare fringe-eared oryx and lesser kudu is often seen darting off into the bushes. Most of the park seems to be made of wide-open spaces and elephants and giraffes can usually be spotted on their way to nowhere or so it seems.

The Taita hills form an interesting background to this scenic park. You probably see a bit more game in the dry season, but to me the wet season is the time to see this park in its full glory: the dramatic stormy skies, green wetlands and red earth make for the most stunning landscapes and colours.

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