© Richard Randall

Caribbean

Sundries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

The driver said we were very lucky to see them so close. He also told us to shut the roof and windows, any extending limbs would not be a good idea at this time! Everyone was taking lots of photos. The lions were so amazing, the day was complete. Richard and I loved seeing all of the animals, but I think the lions were the most memorable along with a particular elephant. It had been earlier in the day when we first began driving round, when we first spotted a family of elephants strolling across the track right in front of us. Obviously we all started taking photographs. Then our driver edged a little closer whilst the elephants were still directly in front of us crossing the track. He seemed quite excited, which at first we thought was odd, surely he was used to seeing these magnificent creatures up close all the time. He then pointed out that one of the baby elephants toward the back was a rather special animal at the park. Then we saw why. This small elephant had been born without a trunk. Apparently they didn’t know what had caused this and at the time they were very worried about his future. At the time he was still quite small so he was managing to feed himself and drink from the watering holes by bending down on his front knees. The concern was that as he grew older and larger he would not be able to bend down and reach the water, how would he manage to drink? We managed to take a photo of him, as he was left behind, strolling across the track. It was one of the weirdest and saddest sights we had seen, this lovely baby elephant without a trunk. I still think about him today, I often wonder if he did manage to survive, I hope so. We were all quite tired by now and it was beginning to get late, I don’t know where the time went. I guess seeing so many animals made the day go fast. We headed back to the hotel for lunch. We were staying at one of the luxury lodges in Tsavo National Park, the Salt Lick Lodge. It was quite an interesting sight architecturally. Salt Lick Lodge, is basically a village on stilts, linked by suspended walkways, and a drawbridge linking to the rest of the world. If you are lucky you will get to see the elephants wandering underneath. The accommodation was made up of thatched rondavels, indigenous Kenyan huts, sitting on top of stilts by a salt lick watering hole. I think they were constructed in the 1970’s and considering this they didn’t look too shabby. There were 96 rooms in total, each tower having just two, one up and one down. Lunch was a buffet, which we both dislike. Having said that it was actually not that bad. There were plenty of choices of dishes and the dining room was pleasant. After lunch it was back to the van and in search of more animals. We didn’t rush out to the van, we had seen practically all of the animals, and we knew that no matter how early we got out there the German couple would have beaten us to it! As we stepped out into the heat we could see that they were already sitting in the van, I think they must have eaten their lunch in it, as we didn’t notice them in the restaurant! Anyway, with full bellies we once again drove out into the bush. It was not long before we saw more animals, which was great. Considering that it was actually quite busy with other tour groups we didn’t often see any of the other vans whilst driving round. It was nice as it almost felt like we had the whole place and all of the animals to ourselves. The time passed quickly and we headed back to the hotel. Richard and I had taken so many pictures and it had been an absolutely fantastic day. We were very happy and very tired, after freshening up we went to the bar for a drink. Feeling refreshed we went for a wander, and we came to the entrance of the hide. This was great, we thought we had seen all the animals we were going to see that day, but we were in for a treat. There were a couple of other people down in the hide when we first got there but they soon left. The hide was situated really close to a watering hole so we had to be very quiet, not easy for me! It was worth it though, as it wasn’t long before we were joined by some visiting animals. A couple of monkeys came to drink, and then began to play and fight with each other. These were followed by some zebra, it was great to see them so close, as from the van we had only seen them in the distance. But here they were so close it felt as though we could reach out and touch them. Up close they were not black and white, the black stripes were more of a dark warm brown and the white had a very red look to it, it looked like the dust and dirt of the rich red earth of Tsavo had impregnated their skin. The zebra stayed for quite a while, although they were never very relaxed, often getting spooked by the breeze or some other animal. It was brilliant being in the hide, we must have stayed down there for hours, as every time we went to leave more animals seemed to come for a drink or to rest in the shade of the trees. The water seemed a popular place for mating antelope too, giving us some excellent photo opportunities that were not suitable for children! At one point a fight broke out between a couple of large male antelope, who were both equally determined to win over a nearby female, they made quite a show of it. I think we used more rolls of film whilst standing underground in that hide than we did on the whole of the rest of the day whilst driving round the park. Maybe we should have just stayed at the hotel in the hide, it was nearer to the bar too! We used up all of our film spending so long in the hide, so feeling happy and thirsty we went to the bar for a quick drink before going to back to our room for more film. Whilst Richard was getting the film I pulled back the curtains and was admiring the amazing view out of the huge picture windows. In the distance I could make out a large expanse of water and what looked like an animal. I called Richard over as he has better eyesight than I do. There were some animals around the edge of the water, very gingerly drinking from the pool. They were buffalo, and then Richard told me that he could see a hippopotamus in the water. At first I couldn’t make it out, but eventually I could just make out the shape of its little ears sticking above the water. No wonder the buffalo were being careful. Then we could see some elephants walking toward the water, it was now that we truly appreciated the way the hotel had been built, because eventually this large group of elephants walked right up to and underneath our room. Obviously we headed straight outside and took lots more photographs. This had been a truly perfect day, and we walked back to the bar where we played cards and chatted about the day. It seemed to get dark quickly and before we knew it it was time for dinner. The restaurant looked very different at night, with very subtle lighting so that we could see out of the huge panoramic windows, and maybe catch a glimpse of some more animals. Dinner was good, lots of it, and we had been sat at a window table which was great. Sure enough, we were treated to some more animal sightings as some thirsty elephants came for a drink right below the restaurant. Once we had finished dinner we went to our room. As it was a Hilton owned hotel, the rooms were furnished much as you would expect. Our room was decorated in neutral, earthy tones as was the en-suite. We had everything we needed and there was plenty of hot running water, the shower felt so good after a dusty day spent in a van on bumpy tracks. The bed was absolutely massive and there were lots of blankets and a very thick duvet on it. It was surrounded by very heavy thick curtains which were partially pulled around the top of it. Later than night when we finally went to bed it became more obvious why there was so much heavy bedding. It was freezing, we were so cold for most of the night that we didn’t get that much sleep. The next morning stepping onto the ice cold concrete floor of the bathroom was a rude awakening. The shower did little to warm us up, the best thing to do was to hurry up and get outside into the warm morning air which we did. We ate breakfast and then began the drive back to Mombasa and the Manson Hotel. This safari trip to Tsavo National Park was not the most reasonably priced safari we could have gone on, as it was luxury all the way, but it was worth every penny. Visiting Tsavo was an amazing, wonderful, unforgettable experience, that we shall both treasure. We were very happy to be back at the Manson Hotel though, and thankfully we were the first to be dropped off. We jumped out of the van and said a quick good-bye to the four other passengers before we went in to our ‘home’, and they were driven back to their beach resorts. We went to reception for our room key and collected our phone messages, before heading up to our room where we promptly fell fast asleep for the next few hours, well we were not as young as we once were!

We had enjoyed such a wonderful time in Kenya, Mombasa in particular. We were only there for just over a month and yet it felt like we had always been there. For us Kenya was like a second home, we fell in love with the people and the country. Sadly it was soon time for us to leave Kenya and begin our next adventure. Although I was keen to get home and unpack all of the boxes of stuff we had bought and posted home, but that would not be just yet, next we flew to Zanzibar, more of which can be read on the Tanzania Travelogue page.

Oceania