Africa's Longest Walking Safari

Across Kenya's West and East Tsavo National Parks

Even with Zambia's walking opportunities, this foot safari is tough to beat for imparting the sense of connectedness that I feel is paramount to Africa travel. What motivated its creator - Kenyan mountaineer Iain Allen - is that the spring snow - melt from Mt Kilimanjaro and all the watershed areas of that great mountain - Africa's highest today - are connected to the Tsavo lowlands below.

The hike crosses two ecosystems. The riverine forest along the Tsavo River which rises in the highlands around Kili, and made up of thickets of fig and tamarind trees, doum and raffia palms (we spent the first few days dodging thorns), gives way to the east to more open acacia forest and savannah and finally to semi‐arid desert. Along the way the Tsavo River reaches the confluence of the Athi River where it becomes the Galana River which flows into the Indian Ocean. Within these two ecosystems primary wildlife sightings were hippo in the heavy riverine vegetation near the Tsavo River and elephants along the Galana. I got the closest to elephants while on foot than I have anywhere else in Africa, and after the first few close encounters, under Iain's watchful eyes, I felt perfectly at ease with it. But we also saw lots of antelope, leopard, and the famous mane‐less Tsavo lions too, including the remarkable sight of eleven lion cubs on a buffalo kill. This walk lives up to its name and uniqueness: it incorporates breath‐taking geography and wildlife sightings with geology, history and animal behavior lessons, while at the same time it presents the physical challenge of walking no less than 10 miles (6.5 kms) every day across Kenya's largest national parks (they make up the size of Wales) under what is often a blistering hot sun. (If you go earlier in the dry season, June and July for example, then the weather will be much cooler.) When we got to the Indian Ocean resort on the 12th day, as much as we all loved the experience, believe me, no one wanted to walk on the beautiful stretch of beach out front. Instead, we headed to soak our feet. It helps that Iain has set up no less than eight (no easy feat) extremely comfortable mobile camps along the way, so no matter how tired you are at the end of the day, you have a soft bed - yes, a bed - to fall into after a wonderful dinner and cold beer and wine. Please see my photo album of Tsavo under the website's Gallery.

This walking safari across Tsavo is now part of MTT's permanent offerings during Kenya's dry season of June through October.

27-05-2009