Tsavo West National Park

An amazing experience. I would recommend it to others.

I saw a Leopard quite by chance. I also saw giraffes, buffalo, elephants,and various other animal. The weather was hot and dry. There was a lot of dust. The lodge was brilliant with lovely clean rooms and a good al a carte menu in the restaurant.

Amazingly Beautiful and Wild Landscape

Tsavo West was the last stop on our 12 day honeymoon safari through Kenya with Natural Tours and Safaris. We had first visited Samburu, Mt. Kenya, Aberdares, Mara, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli. Despite having been to so many amazing locations, we found Tsavo to be amazingly beautiful and unique. The landscape is a striking mix of rocky hills, greenery, black volcanic lava flows and red dirt that makes for some spectacular scenery. It also felt like the most 'wild' of the parks. We lodged at Rhino Valley which was very comfortable, set in a beautiful location and had some of the best food of our trip. There seemed to be a good chance of seeing leopards there (we saw 2), and the 'red' elephants are also quite cool. The one downside was that because it's so wild, hilly and brushy, wildlife can be harder to spot and so we went on a number of drives where we didn't see too much. Despite that, I still think Tsavo West is well worth the trip - just not if it's your only chance to see wildlife.

A lot of variation in 1 park

Tsavo west is a very variously. I liked the different vegation in het park, althougt in some parts its very hard to spot animals because off the dense vegatation.In this park lives a lot of animals, but you do not see tem all. In other, less vegatated, parcs it's easier to spot animals. But sometimes the animals are crossing the roads, we almost hid a giraffe, because we didn't see it coming because of the vegatation. Luckaly our driver didn't drive to fast.if you only visiting 1 parc and you want to see a lot of animals, you better choose a different parc. But if you're visiting more parc, Tsavo west is a lovely suprising change to other parcs. To bad there is very long fence next to 1 of the roads. This fence is neccesary because of the elephants, but it's a pity that it's directly besides the road.
In Tsavo West you can also spot some history, like bridges who are builed in the 2nd world war. Whe had a very good guide from Pollmans, he had a lot of stories about the places the Germans fought with the British people. Do'nt know if it was all truth, but you have to believe your guide...
When your in Tsavo West you really have to go to the places with the black lava. It's like your on the moon or something, everywere you can see it's all black...

Tsavo West - the mountainous rustic gem of the Kenyan safari parks.

Tsavo West was one of three national parks we visited while in Kenya, along with Amboseli and Tsavo East. Each of these parks has its own special characteristics and charms. Of the three, Tsavo West is certainly the least visited, which helps to give it a more secluded and natural feel. The relative lack of tourists means that even when impressive groups of animals are spotted, only a few safari vehicles will converge, and so are less likely to spook them away. Additional plusses for Tsavo West are that the terrain provides a beautiful backdrop as this park is the most mountainous of the three, and that there was the opportunity to see animals that we were not able to spot elsewhere. For example, Tsavo West was the only park where we observed leopards, hippos (at the Mzima Springs pools within the park), and several kinds of monkeys. Mzima Springs in particular was an exceptional treat since it was one of the few opportunities on safari to leave the jeep while in a park, though in exchange, the guides needed to be armed just in case a hippo or other large animal decided it did not like our presence. Luckily, incidents almost never occur, so the result is just that one can get closer to the natural environment and have a slightly elevated sense of adventure while doing it. Tsavo West also contains a black rhino preserve, though we were unable to see any rhinos while there. Not being able to see a rhino was perhaps the only major downside with our visit, though I am sure other visitors don’t have this kind of bad luck. Others potential criticisms of the park are that because it is so remote, the lodging services are a little rougher and that because of the terrain, there are no locations to get expansive photos of hundreds of animals of different species together as far as the eye can see. We personally found the lodging in the park to be pleasantly rustic, and thought the change of background scenery provided a good compliment to the other parks on the trip. Assuming you can fit it in your itinerary, a visit to Tsavo West is certainly recommended along with the other fine parks in the Kenyan park system.

Tsavo West lies between the main Nairobi to Mombasa road and Mount Kilimanjaro.

The area is best known for its broad red plains, whose endless acacia scrub and occasional waterholes provide sustenance to a population of elephants

Got upclose with the animals

The wildlife is exceptional, you can see the big five as well as numerous birding opportunities. The weather is just perfect for safari and accommodation is top notch.

A once in a lifetime experience

Our trip to Kenya and vistit to Tsavo West National Park was our first (and so far only) safari. It was one of our most enjoyable and memorable vacations so far. Although we did not spot any cats, we basically saw every other animal: giraffes, elephants, zebras, hippos, owls, etc.

We slept in a (fully equipped) tent , which made the experience complete. In the night you could literally hear the animals passing by. Amazing.

After a couple of days we stayed in a resort at the beach. That was nice as well, but we all hoped the safari would have last a little longer. The days just seemed to flew by!

Please have a look a my pictures to get an impression of Kenya and Tsavo West National Park: https://www.flickr.com/photos/beukhof/sets/72157639847428163

Red bushy Tsavo

Along with the eastern portion the Tsavo National Park is around 20,000 square kilometers, dwarfing the more popular Masai Mara which is 1,510 square kilometers. Although Tsavo is a large park its vegetation may make game spotting a lot more difficult, and thus the popularity of Masai Mara. But Tsavo with its red soil, blue skies and black lava flows offers a unique beauty of its own. Even the animals are coloured red because of the soil! The Mzima spring was a first for me and it was intriguing to see water just appearing from the ground, and quite a bit of it! The water was so pure that we could drink straight from the spring!

If you have some luck on your side Tsavo can be a great place. It's sheer size means there is enough wildlife in the park, but you may have to be patient and spend more time here. Unlike animals, birds are a lot easier to spot and if you are into birding you will certainly not be disappointed.

One more interesting feature of the park is the "Shetani" lava flow. It was surreal to see the landscape suddenly change to dark black. In fact you can see the border between the red soil and the black soil from past volcanic eruptions clearly in certain spots.

Plenty of wildlife to see here still with great sightings and lodges.

Many animals in a interesting landscape.
Animals are some times difficult to watch because there are many bushes and trees. Sometimes we've seen them after we passed them.
We've seen zebras, ostriches, elephants, giraffes, buffalos, hyenas, hippos and crocodiles (at Mzima Spings). And a lot of birds.
We has a very beautiful lodge inside the park (Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge) with its own water hole. So we could watch several animals at the evening from the balcony of our rooms or the bar.