Tsavo

Tsavo is about space. Tsavo East, established in 1948, is Kenya’s largest national park at about 13,747 square kilometres, and with Tsavo West, the second-largest, it forms the Tsavo Conservation Area of around 22,000 square kilometres in Taita-Taveta County, where elephants dusted red by the soil cross semi-arid plains. Tsavo East also supports the critically endangered hirola, and more than 500 bird species have been recorded there.

It is full of stories too. The man-eating lions of Tsavo attacked workers building the Kenya–Uganda Railway in 1898 and halted construction, and the bush here was a theatre of the First World War’s East African campaign, which Kenya Wildlife Service describes as combining formal military codes with guerrilla tactics. With minimal light pollution, the parks’ night skies are another reason to stay.

Kenya Wildlife Service describes most of its parks, Tsavo included, as lying in dry, warm to hot country, with the north and east of Kenya hot and dry. It gives July to March as the main season for wildlife viewing and April to June as the low season of the long rains, when roads may need four-wheel drive. The Kenya Meteorological Department adds a shorter rainy season from October to December.

Both parks lie along the Nairobi–Mombasa highway, which with the railway separates them. Gates include Mtito Andei, Voi, Bachuma and Manyani for Tsavo East, with Sala Gate reached from Malindi, and Mtito Andei, Chyulu (from Amboseli), Tsavo River, Lake Jipe, Maktau and Ziwani for Tsavo West. The Standard Gauge Railway stops at Voi and Miasenyi for Tsavo East and at Mtito Andei for Tsavo West.

Several airstrips serve both parks: Voi and Ithumba are the main airstrips in Tsavo East, while Kilaguni and Finch Hattons serve Tsavo West, with smaller strips throughout. The size of the area means that the choice of gate and base matters, as different parts of the parks can be a long drive apart, and a safari that visits both usually crosses the highway between them.