Mombassa is the second largest city in Kenya with a population of 900,000. It is on an island which is about 3 x 1.8 miles in size. The port serves both Kenya and countries of the interior linking them to the Indian Ocean. Mombassa is also the center of the coastal tourism industry.
We hurried off the ship to check out the vendors on the pier as soon as we had clearance. There were many set up, all on the pavement, no tables. Sarongs and such were hanging on the fence along the side of the area. We just wanted to see what there would be to buy before we headed off on safari. There is a lot of wood carving and stone carving, all very beautiful.
Our guide, Frank, picked us up at 8:30. We soon realized there would be no air conditioning for this tour and it was HOT. Kenya hugs the equator. We headed out of town, passing a lot of slum areas, then getting out into the country side. After passing thru some low hills, it became pretty flat. It was brown and dry. We traveled for about an hour before stopping at a craft shop. There were all the HAL buses of passengers who were going on safari also. The shop was loaded with carvings and batik pictures. One of the workers would attach themselves to you and try to bargain for any item we were interested in. They would start at $100 for instance, when the real selling price might be $10. It was kind of annoying, but happened over and over again. Guess they could make a good profit if someone didn't know.
After another hour, we reached the gates to Tsavo East National Park. Together with Tsavo West, they form the biggest game sanctuary in Kenya occupying 4,500 square miles. It has diverse habitats, ranging from mountains, river forest, plains, lakes and wooded grassland. We saw some of everything. Soon after driving thru the gates, we came upon a lone tree with a baboon sitting right on the top. It was like he was waiting for us, posing for pictures. Our first animal. We then started seeing more, mainly zebras, then elephants. Here's a list of what we saw in the 2 days we were in the park:
Baboon, Zebra, Dik Dik, Wart Hog, Gazelle, Hartebeest Antelope, Lion, Waterbuck, Impala, Cheetah, Hippo, Crocodile, Mongoose, Pigmy Mongoose, Giraffe Gazelle, Kudu, Velvet Monkey, Silver Backed Jackal, Water Buffalo, Tortoise and Giraffe.
Large birds include Marabou Stork, Secretary Bird, Cory Bastard (not sure of the spelling of that one!), Marshall Eagle, Egyptian Geese, Guinea Fowl, Vulture and Snake Eagle.
Small birds were beautiful European Roller Bird, Golden Piper and Yellow Necked Sparrow.
We arrived at Galdessa Camp at about 3. It was a lot further out in the bush than the lodges where most people were staying. It is built right on the river. The main lodge is an open air structure. Each "room" is an individual cabin with a canvas front. All the furniture was made with logs and branches found in the bush. We had a nice front porch to sit on to enjoy the river. We had lunch, a short rest, then headed for a river walk. On the way we spotted a young cheetah. Frank turned off the engine and we realized that there were 3 cheetahs, probably siblings. I think they were as curious about us as we were about them because they soon approached the van, sitting about 20 feet from us. The one just sat there looking at us, it was amazing. We soon had to leave them, rather than them running away from us, we were late for our walk.
We were met by a guide and 2 rangers carrying AK 47's. One was always in front of the group, one behind the last person. Made us feel safe. Also with us was an older man who had actually lived on the land. He was moved out when it became a National Park in 1949. He showed us how they make fire in less than a minute using 2 sticks. We climbed over huge granite rocks along a rushing river. The water had carved holes and a narrow canyon, it was moving pretty fast. A bit further down we saw one lone hippo peeking out of the water. The guide said they generally forage for food at night alone, then return to the river during the day in groups. He figured that one had probably gotten separated from his group. We soon heard them grunting further down the river, ours grunted in reply. We also saw some very large crocodiles in the water. Don't think I'd want to swim in that river! We saw crocs in the river in front of our camp also.
We returned to the vans and drove a short distance to where we saw a table set up right there in the bush. We washed our hands in a canvas wash basin, then sat down. I think it was originally set up to view the sunset from there, but we were a bit late due to our cheetah encounter. They had a full bar set up but we just wanted water, it was so HOT. I think our travel agent had set that up as surprise. It was very nice.
We were escorted to our cabins to clean up for dinner. We had a canvas bag that holds about 20 liters of water to shower with. They had put some warm water in it, but at that point I would have been happy with a cold shower, it was so HOT! No fan in the room either. Dinner was at the main lodge then we were escorted back to our cabins. We were not allowed to go anywhere on the grounds without an escort. Once they left us in the cabin, we were not allowed to exit. If we needed anything, we had a whistle to blow and someone would come. Right in front of the cabin, next to the river, was a path used by hippos at night. Wouldn't want to run into one of those up close! Our friend heard them munching as they passed by at about 2:30, I slept thru it. The bed was hard and it was extremely hot with the mosquito netting keeping out any breeze there might have been, but we were so tired, that we slept well in spite of it all.
