Lake Chala, Tanzania & Tsavo West - Kenya

To our great surprise and delight and despite the late session the night before, Fionnuala was up bright and early and still eager to show us Lake Chala, so whilst we waited for Trudy we had breakfast and paid our bill. 

As soon as Trudy arrived we set off, her and Fionnuala would be leading the way in Trudy & Roger's Nissan Patrol with Fionnuala at the wheel.  

Fionnuala's main concern was not to damage Trudy's car as once we left Marangu for Himo we left the tar behind and we where travelling via small tracks through the bush and farmlands. Without Fionnuala there is no way we would have found the way as at one point the track had been washed away by heavy rains and was impassable so we had to find an alternative route, asking the local villagers the way to go, then after loads of twists and turns, each time climbing ever higher, quite unexpectedly we suddenly emerged onto the crater rim.

It was such a surprise to suddenly see the Lake spread out below us we were taken aback for a second. The lake is so beautiful words cannot adequately describe it, a deep turquoise surrounded by steep cliffs cloaked in dense green vegetation, the surface almost like a mirror it was like something out of a James Bond movie.

Chala is a crater lake formed in the caldera of a long extinct volcano, there are no tourist facilities whatsoever on any part of the rim (one guy started building a lodge but committed suicide before it was completed) nor are there any villages and it is too high for most wildlife so it has a distinctly eerie feel to it.

The rim on the far side is in Kenya so the lake sits astride the border which in itself is fairly unique. We stayed for as long as we could drinking beers, eating snacks and enjoying the view, which is fantastic at any time but for a glorious all too brief moment the clouds parted to the West and we caught sight of snow capped Kilimanjaro - a memory that will live for ever.

Local legend tells that monsters along the lines of our own Nessie live in the lake so the locals rarely go there to fish and certainly we felt here was a place which should be left untouched forever - it was that special.

Unfortunately time was against us and by 2.30pm it was time for us to make our way to the border and cross into Kenya as we still had someway to go and Fionnuala and Trudy needed to get back to Marangu before dark.

Again it was a case of following Fionnuala as we descended from the crater but eventually we popped out of the bush onto the road,  a few hundred yards away was the Tanzanian border gate at Taveta and beyond it Kenya. Thanks to Fionnuala & Trudy we had an unforgettable experience but it was time to bid farewell to them and to Tanzania. We were sure we would see them all again but when was another question, now it was onto Kenya, the ninth country we had visited in the last year.

It took an hour to get through both border posts, getting passports checked and stamped and then getting the Carnet stamped. When we arrived in Tanzania we had paid $US5 road tax not realising this only entitled us to stay 7 days so the customs guys wanted to charge us an additional $US25 for the overstay, which was correct, but luckily we managed to blag our way out of it.

At Kenyan immigration we paid $US 50 each for a three month visa plus $US20 road tax. As we crossed into Kenya for the first time we had no idea where we would spend the night and as by now it was 4.30pm then time was short as it gets dark by 6.30ish.

Fionnuala had suggested a camp called Voyager situated close to the gate for Tsavo West but as this is very upmarket we weren't at all sure they would let us camp there, however it was 5.30pm by the time we reached there so our options were a bit limited. A nice young local girl was on reception and she confirmed our worse fears that they didn't allow camping and their en suite Meru tents would cost $US 165 per person per night full board.

However, being a silver tongued Chacma we managed to negotiate a deal of $US154 for the both of us, kissing the Blarney stone in Ireland all those years ago comes in handy now and again! Our tent was a good way from the main camp which is just the way we like it, by now it was almost dark so as one of the guys showed us the way they were lightning hurricane lamps which made it look like a fairy wonderland.

When we checked in we were asked if we wanted to go out on night drive at 7pm? Now we love night drives but they are rightly banned in the national parks so you can only do them on private concession areas outside,  however seeing the bush at night is totally different as the small and sometimes not so small nocturnal animals come out.  We rushed our showers, downed a quick G&T then went back to the reception to join the drive, however once there it became clear the camp didn't have it's own vehicles and the other tour groups weren't about to let us join there's so we were expected to drive ourselves with a Masaai guide and guard.

Now you cannot swing a cat inside Rupert unless we offloaded loads of stuff so we decided to give it a miss, go back and have a few more drinks, we were too knackered to drive anyway. The bonus was with most of the other guests out on the drive the restaurant was nice and quiet and we got first dibs on the food which we have to say was delicious.  Back at the tent we sat on the verandha with a nightcap but the night was very quiet so our beds won the vote.

Next morning we had Impala around the tent but not much else so after a very nice breakfast we headed off to enter Tsavo West national park via the Ziwani gate which was very close by.

At the gate we found that Fionnuala's smart card had $US 450 and KSHs 1,500 on it.  Park entry is $40 p.p.p.n and camping in the park $10 p.p.p.n, Rupert would cost KSHs 300 per day so happy days we had enough to get us in the park for up to four nights if we wanted, however we chose to just pay for one night first to see how we liked it as once paid they don't give refunds.

Not long after entering the park we saw another first for us, a pair of Ostriches, not special in themselves but this pair had about 50 yes 50 baby Ostriches with them, not sure how many chicks an Ostrich can have but this must be close to some sort of record!

Apart from that it was pretty quiet, it was clear the park had had a lot of rain, as evidenced by us having to cross a flooded bridge, so the bush was very very thick which didn't help at all in trying to see what little game there was.

Normally on entering a park we go first to the campsite and set up camp, however in Tsavo West as we planned to camp at the public campsite near the Chyulu gate which was in the North area of the park we would take our time to explore the area along the way first.

Tsavo is bisected by the Mombasa to Nairobi highway, the park to the west of the road is Tsavo West and to the east, Tsavo East. Each park is autonomous so you have to pay separate park fees to enter each.

The Tsavo area became infamous in 1898 when during the building of the railway from Mombasa to Uganda, a pair of man eating Lions killed and ate some 28 railway workers (mostly Indians brought to Kenya by the British) and it is thought at least 100 Africans.

They were eventually hunted down and killed by Lt Col Patterson, the British engineer in charge of building a bridge across the Tsavo River, although not before he narrowly escaped becoming one of their victims. The story was immortalised in his book "The Man Eaters of Tsavo" and became the subject for the Hollywood film "The Ghost & The Darkness" although to get in on the act the Americans couldn't resist inserting a fictitious and somewhat ridiculous American White Hunter played by Michael Douglas into the story!

When Patterson eventually killed the Lions they were found to be young Males, in good condition, although one was supposed to have a broken tooth. Why these Lions turned into man eaters is not known although the guess is they just found us a much easier target as the wild game must have been already quite scarce even then due to the massive hunting by the various travellers and explorers who had passed through the area.

The striking thing about the man eaters was although in their prime they had almost no manes, a trait which is particular to Tsavo Lions. One theory is the Tsavo Lions have developed without manes because it makes it easier to travel through the thorn bush.

The Tsavo bush, especially in Tsavo East, consists almost completely of thick thorn bushes. Fredrick Selous the early 20th Century white hunter described the area as Hell on Earth and the worst he ever travelled in. Even today Tsavo lions have a reputation for being bald and aggressive and because of the thick bush are not to be trifled with.

The drive through the park was pleasant but we found the dense bush too claustrophobic and almost impossible to see any game. The only way to see any distance is to climb one of the hills, one of which is called appropriately 'Poachers Lookout' as it was and is used by poachers to locate Elephant and other game out on the plains. We climbed it and the views over the park towards Kilimanjaro and Amboseli are beautiful but we couldn't see any game moving about.

One of the main attractions in the park is a place called Mzima Springs which is a small lake fed from underground streams from the Chyulu Hills. It's a very pretty place with the lake surrounded by lovely yellow barked Acacia trees, they have built an underwater viewing chamber so you can see a eye level what's moving around in the lake. We were hoping that one of the resident Hippo's would walk by but all we saw was some of the local fish.

By now we were getting quite close to the Chyulu Gate and our camp for the night, so far we had seen virtually no game and pretty as the park was with the dense green bush, the sky was becoming overcast and we were thinking maybe there just wasn't enough here to make us stay here for more than one night.

When we reached the campsite at Chyulu,  our minds where made up as the site was not very nice. Close to the gate it was basically a small field which had been cleared of bush and in which they had put up some reed shelters, presumably one for each site, but the shelters were too close together so it all looked a bit dreary and cramped, especially as the surrounding bush was very dense and you had no outlook whatsoever.

When we arrived one spot was occupied by a small mobile safari group operating out of Nairobi, there two clients were out on a game drive but the support guys were there cooking away. They mentioned there were also some special camp sites a short way away but they were very overgrown. We went to look and while the surroundings where much more pleasant the bush was extremely  thick and Sue didn't feel comfortable, so we went back to the public site and picked out the best shelter we could away from the safari group. 

We decided to leave the park in the morning and go onto  Amboseli. As an introduction to Kenyan parks Tsavo West had been disappointing but we hoped Amboseli which was reputedly much more open would be better.

The only problem was for security reasons we couldn't just take off in the morning, the Kenyan's still insist that travel between the two parks on the C103 road is done in armed convoy's. They say this is for the tourists safety because of wild animals en route which frankly is bullshit, the real reason is that cars on occasion have been held up by local bandits, most recently a car carrying a Russian diplomat and his family was ambushed and stolen, although we believe no harm came to the occupants.

It was stormy night with thunder and rain off and on, the  convoy was due to leave at 10am so we would have time for one last game drive before we left. We were packed and on the road by 7.45am, the weather very cloudy but hot and humid, like yesterday we saw little game until we got to Roaring Rocks another viewpoint looking out towards Tsavo East, where the man eaters had roamed.

Here appropriately we saw our only Tsavo lions, not maneless males unfortunately but four Lionesses, lying on top of the rocks. Even here the bush was all around so it was hard to get a clear photo, Tsavo really makes you work for every opportunity.

We returned to the gate to find that already quite a few vehicles were waiting to join the convoy. After signing out and having given ourselves the call sign 'Rubber Ducky' we took our place and at 10.10am we set off on the 84km journey to Amboseli,  we had ourselves a convoy!