It took me 33 years to first see the magical beauty of wildlife in Kenya. But my son had to wait for only five years! My family visited my in Mombasa for the 1st time in August 2017 and Tsavo was the obvious choice to expose them to the beautiful wildlife Kenya had to offer. My son being just 5 years was extremely excited that he was going to see lions and elephants. As we entered the park on a Friday late morning the sun was scorching hot but I was so happy to be back in Tsavo.
As we drove along we could see how the dry weather keeps on taunting the animals in the park. There were hardly any greenery just dry dry dry weather. Its a typical example of survival of the fittest.
My wife and son along with my mother in law was amazed on how have these animals survived without water. Coming from Sri Lanka where we have a very pleasant weather and wildlife parks which are full of greenery seeing Tsavo was simply one of a kind experience.
As we were nearing the end of our evening game drive, we witnessed an emotional situation involving a herd of Elephants. There were around 7 elephants including a baby calf. The baby was following the mother but at one point the baby simply collapsed as if to say “I have had enough”. The mother was extremely worried and was trying to wake the baby up. Then the entire heard stopped and another elephant came to encourage the baby. It was a emotional sitting. We were worried if the baby is going to get up. We heard many incidents where the weak did not survive due to the hard drought. And then miraculously the baby got up. We were all thrilled.
After an emotional evening game drive we called it a day and it was time for full day game drive. But my son had other plans! After seeing the pool at Ashnil Aruba he spent the entire morning and afternoon in the water! The fortunate (unfortunate) person to baby sit him was non other than my mother in law!
As my wife and myself headed out to explore, we headed towards Satao camp since my colleague and friend, Kamran was staying there. I also wanted to show the camp to my wife. Then as we left the imaginable happened! If you believe in first timers luck then there no better example! As we left Satao, my wife spotted a Cheetah in the bush. We were so so lucky! She had never seen a Cheetah before and she was thrilled! For me it was my 2nd sighting but then again spotting a Cheetah in the middle of the day, that has to mean something!
As we savored our rare sighting we not so lucky in the evening. There were no sighting of lions or anything interesting. But the best was in store for the night. On the previous day the night guards told us that there were a pride of lions in the vicinity of the lodge. I told them if they see any lions near the lodge even at midnight to wake me up. To my surprise at around 2 am there is a knock on our room door. All were fast asleep. I jumped out and guess what there was kill just behind the lodge and 4 lions were devouring the kill. There was only the electric fence between us and the lions. I had never seen such a sight in my life so up-close! Four fully grown lions against three men…. I am sure you can do the math! Unfortunately, I didn’t take my camera to capture the moment, which was my only regret. Now when I told the story to my wife she was pissed off with me not waking her up. It was time for our last game drive early in the morning. Mother nature saved the best for the last!
Just outside Ashnil, it was a best sight ever. A pride of 11 lions in total taking a early morning walk. These were lions I had seen last night. We followed them for nearly an hour! What more could you ask?
To-date this has to be the best sight of lions I have seen. It was even more special since I was able to share this experience with my family. I was glad I was able to expose my son to a world beyond just home and school. I hope one day he too will show his son the beauty of Africa.
Lalindra De Silva 
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