Enter a national park and the first thing you find to be elephants red is like arriving five minutes late to a game of your favorite team and see on the scoreboard already wins 3-0. From there, It is very difficult to keep the bar. That's what happened to us as soon as we set foot in Tsavo, the park of maneless maneating lions. to mislead, at the iron gate Manyani Gate there are two iron rhinos facing their antlers, but the track that lies in front of us does not deceive: the intensity of the clay soil urges us to continue, to walk the roads of Tsavo, one of the largest parks in all of Africa, with their almost 21.000 square kilometers (in front of 1.500 of Masai Mara, eg), to the point that in 1948 had to split it in two, East and West, to facilitate the administration of its immense territory.
The irruption of those elephants that seem painted by the very Andy Warhol It is shocking. But it's not a bad joke, they are simply impregnated with the reddish dust that stains these places. Not all have the same color (which also dyes buffalo and warthogs red), although, in any case, bumping into one of these cartoon pachyderms isn't that hard. Although poaching decimated in the years 50 to most of the 40.000 tsavo elephants, the herds show up everywhere and we, in just one afternoon, we saw more than 200. you can admire them, even, from the comfort of the hotel garden. In the Ashnil Aruba Lodge, eg, located inside the park, you could guess the imposing silhouette of an elephant prowling around while you enjoyed a relaxing swim in the pool. The proverbial memory of these animals, yes, It makes them distrust even human beings and they usually put land in between as soon as they smell the presence of the ruthless predator that is man..
It's not a bad joke, they are simply impregnated with the reddish dust that stains these places
But when it comes to predators, few will have given more to talk about than the lions of Tsavo. Two of them engaged, late nineteenth century, in preventing the construction of the railway network between the Indian coast and Lake Victoria, powered by the British, the legendary Lunatic Express (Tren Lunatic). they devoured 132 workers (indian coolies) and spread terror until the colonel Patterson finished them off. Scientific studies have no respect for myths and, a few years ago, they reduced the booty to just over thirty dead. there they. "Demons of the Night", the film starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer in 1996, took to the big screen that struggle between man and beast.
Three of the descendants of those ferocious lions (that Patterson himself sold stuffed animals to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where they are still exposed) take a nap in the dry bed of a river, a few meters from the road but sheltered from the eyes of the curious. Pay attention, our guide Kobo Safaris, gives us a few magical minutes in front of the felines, who yawn, they stretch, play and drink water in a tiny pond. the two males, as is characteristic here, they don't look mane. It's hard to get tired of seeing them, despite the fact that we are invading his routine with respectful impudence, but impudence at the end of the day. It is not hard to imagine the terror of the workers in charge of laying, over a century ago, the railroad ties between bushes where wild beasts could lurk. Two thousand five hundred left their lives in the attempt, especially due to the onslaught of tropical diseases. would deserve, at least, a plaque at one of the stations that dot the nearly one thousand kilometers of the railway line.
When it comes to predators, few will have given more to talk about than the man-eating lions of Tsavo
At dawn, we start with the dawn, trying to find the lions that have prowled the hotel all night. We hear their roars. They are probably less than a kilometer away., but we can't find them, although the emotion that is felt is as intense as if we had achieved it. On the way to Lugard Falls, we deviated to live one of those gifts with which, suddenly, gives you an African park: a female cheetah and her calf playing with the first rays of the sun. We follow them as they climb trees and do somersaults on the branches of a dry trunk, enjoying the privilege of wildlife despite the coming and going of cars stationed in front of the felines.
Tsavo is a constant surprise. A few minutes later, we stop again. In a valley there are a dozen lions that are killing a buffalo. Maybe they killed him tonight, maybe a few hours ago, but the feast has already been inaugurated and the head of the prey upon the earth, face up, looks like a rag while two lions, the red snout of blood and death, they devour his entrails.
Lugard Falls have wild charm and are free to traverse, without railings or artificial viewpoints
at ten in the morning, four hours after leaving, we parked the SUV in front of Lugard Falls. Here you can go ashore to the waterfall of the galana river, who has sculpted capricious forms in the rock, shaping it over centuries. They are not spectacular falls, but they have the charm of the wild, So they run freely., without railings or artificial viewpoints, although with the precaution of not slipping. some clueless, account Makini, for leaning out too much he has ended up falling into the water. A little further down, where the water pools calming the impetus of the current, crocodiles await. As we stroll at our leisure among the stone clefts, lose sight of a few minutes Xavier, my partner on VOD. If he had stumbled it would be impossible to hear him call for help because the distance and the force of the water drowns out any sound.. I keep taking photos and look at myself more and more often, but it still doesn't come back. When I start to retrace my steps I see him peeking out from between the stones camera at the ready.
In the afternoon, we enter a track where a car is not seen, turning your back on the busiest. The landscape, pure savannah but now an ashy color, changes completely. Herds of elephants follow each other (we count more than 40 in one of them) and to top it off, when the sun is going down, four cheetahs cross in front of us waiting for the men to give them back their space to try to hunt.
The day dies in Tsavo and leaves an immense feeling of fullness. And no desire to leave
The day dies in Tsavo and leaves an immense feeling of fullness. And no desire to leave. When you don't want to leave a place you cling to the minutes as if your life depended on it. Tomorrow it's time to set course Mombasa, but before we try to squeeze a little more this cluster of sensations. Pay attention, always willing to make things easy, does not make any objection. At six in the morning we will go out to see the sunrise and enjoy one last safari before heading down the coastal road.. Before, that same night the roars of the lions will tear the silence of the darkness shortly before, as if it wasn't the last time, Let's see sunrise again in Tsavo.
More information about this and other routes through Kenya at: Kobo Safaris.
