Hyena Spectacle

“The gladdest moment in human life is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

Its been more than one and a half years since I updated my blog on my safari journey’s. Wonder what happened?? As the famous excuse goes, “I didn’t have time. I was busy!” or was it that I simply lost interest?? Well, I guess only time will tell since I have now felt the urge to start updating my adventures once again!

I will be begin where I left off. It was another up coming weekend in October 2018! Thank God, my memory is still good! Thank God, I have plenty of pictures which reminds me of my trips!

It was another weekend trip to Tsavo East NP with my travel buddy Kamran. This time we decided to try a different camp which we have not been before. We decided to stay the weekend at Sentrim Tsavo Camp. We were venturing to the unknown and did not know what to expect!

As usual we entered the park through the Bachuma gate which is around 100km from Mombasa. We entered the park on Saturday morning and it was an hours drive towards the park.

On our way we saw a very unusual Zebra. We saw a Grévy’s Zebra. This sub species of Zebra is usually not found in Tsavo East, so it was rare sight of this Zebra! As we moved on we saw the usual herbivores! Other than the Zebra, the drive to the camp was ordinary but it felt good to smell the air of Tsavo!

We arrived at the camp in time for lunch. The camp was surrounded by an electric fence. There was a water hole which was a couple of feet from the fence. The dining area had a excellent view of the water hole. There were many elephants, zebra, impala and many more coming to drink water. It was a sight to see! After lunch we checked in to our tents and chilled out for a couple of hours and got ready for the evening game drive!

As we drove on we saw a family of Ostrich which was an adorable sight to see! The baby Ostriches running all over the place! Then we came upon a family of warthogs! These guys were so curious and enjoyed playing in the mud under the watchful eyes of the parents. How could we not miss the Zebra’s taking a much needed dip in the water roles which were full from the recent rains! Even though these were interesting moments for us we were yet to spot what we really came for! THE LION!!! The king of the jungle! We roamed around for some time and we got word from a tour van about a lion! We made our way and there she was! What a beauty! We so lucky that we also saw two male lions in the distance chilling away. Our evening game drive was a success!!

We headed back to camp as the sun began to set. I really enjoyed the dinner! There was oven baked min pizza’s! And I LOVE pizza! What a evening and night it was. We decided to head to bed early since we wanted to go for a early morning game drive. After a good night of sleep off we went to the dining area for a early breakfast. And boy! We were in for a treat! There was so much action at the water hole! The elephants had taken over the water  hole and were chasing all the other animals! It was a sight to see. And then we were in for a surprise!! A pack of Hyena made their way to the water hole. I never realized how big the Heyna was until I saw then so close! They were huge! The spooky noise they make, the clumsy behavior and their erratic moves reminds you of a unpredictable serial killer who can strike any moment!!

After an eventful breakfast with the hyena’s we were off for another game drive, What more can you ask than another encounter with the king! We found two lions guarding their kill. We spent nearly an hour with these lions and off we went.

As we were heading back to the camp were caught in two way traffic! There were two huge elephant bulls taking a cool walk in front of us and then finally when we passed them there was another bull heading towards us! Thank God, they were in good spirits because moment they saw us they moved away and gave us room!

After we checked out from Sentrim we headed toward the Bachuma gate. Since Ashnil lodge is on the way, we hoped in and to our amazement we again saw another male lion guarding a buffalo kill! This was the cherry on the cake!

What a trip it was! We were back in Mombasa for lunch. A weekend well spent! A story well told! A memory carved in the digital world before is vanishes from my memory! As said by Iban Battuta, “Travel makes you speechless! Then turns you into a story teller!!” How true!