Tsavo National Park

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Sun. morning I woke up early said goodbye to my family grabbed my bag and headed off to the office to meet the group. We ended up leaving late 'cause one of the safari vans was late, but nothing here is on time, so it wasn't out of the ordinary. When it came we all climbed in eager to get on the way to Tsavo National Park. The drive up there took several hours. The road for most of the way was paved, but very bad. The vans we were in luckily had good shock absorbers, but it still felt like we were off roading most of the time. The drive was slow and very bumpy.

Around noon we finally arrived at the park and had lunch at a resort just outside of the park. It was up on a hill overlooking a large portion of the park. It was gorgeous. Off in the distance could see a rainstorm. It serious looked like the cloud was falling. I've only see clouds and rain like that in pictures. Lunch was amazing, but we were all anxious to get on the way.

After lunch we climbed back in the van and immediately popped open the roofs of the vans. We were ready to go see some animals. The safari was absolutely incredible. The park is huge and you're only allowed to stay on designated roads, so seeing animals can sometimes be difficult. Many of the animals have also moved on to other areas due to the drought. The beginning of the safari we all decided that it felt like we were in Jurassic Park waiting to see animals that weren't in sight. The air was stifling.

After driving around a bit we began to see little animals. It's amazing to see animals in their natural habitats. We also saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, water buffalo (in fact at one point we saw a whole heard of them that were mozying their way towards us....amazing), really neat birds and some other animals.

I would have to say though, the most impressive part of the afternoon was the sky. We eventually got rained on, but for a while we seemed to be surrounded by a storm. The sky around the park turned a dark gray/purple. The clouds were wonderful... I love the clouds here. They're sooo billowy and seem to rise up for miles. There was also lightning. I love lightning =) At one point the lightning seemed to be coming up out of the ground! I've never seen anything like that.

Just before it got dark we headed out of the park to go to where we were "camping". Apparently Athman's ideas of camping and the rest of our ideas of camping are completely opposite. We drove a while along a very bumpy and crazy road to Patterson Camp. It was sooooooooooo luxurious. I even had my own tent 'cause I volunteered to stay by myself. There were two people to a tent and we even had hot showers!!!! The meal we had there was delicious. The site was settled along a river, paths were lit by tiki torches and we pretty much had it allllllll to ourselves. It was amazing. We felt sooooo pampered. It almost wasn't fair to get us there in the evening and have us leave early the following morning, but we weren't really going to complain.

It was sooooo peaceful to wake up to the sounds of birds. I sat outside my tent and watched the sun rise over the river. It was beautiful. The night before the guys working there said the river was full of hippos and we'd be able to see em in the morning. Unfortunately, very very early in the morning they moved down river where it was deeper. I was kind of sad that we would get to see any. Right before we left though a few of us were down by the river and a hippo popped out of the water and was mosying it's way up the opposite river bank. It was really cool to see. =) We didn't hang around much 'cause we wanted to get back in the park.

The morning was the perfect time to see the animals. It was amazing to see them all. How wonderful to watch a giraffe bend its long lanky neck to pluck leaves off a bush at its knees; to watch a group of elephants walk amongst the shrubs with babies following close behind their mothers; to see a family of baboons cross a big boulder to rest in the shade of a tree; a lilac bird pearching so proudly at the tip of the tallest branch of a short tree looking like they own the world.

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Comments

[deleted_14913]

School....
Hey, I have to ask. When do you go to school during all this fun? Sounds like a great program!

[Ralph]

Pattersons Camp
Just got back from a trip that included Patterson's Camp. It was the best place we stayed. Low cost, great food, hippos in the river..... If you get a chance to stay there, take it!

[cabochick]

Fantastic Photo!
Love the contrast between the storm and the lovely red soil.