Day Four

After last night's shower, dinner and rest in the Silent Guest Resort in Voi, we were feeling refreshed and relaxed, so we stocked up on more supplies and headed into Tsavo East again. The KWS staff at the gate informed us that our information about the injured elephant had been passed on to the relevant team. We were only 10 yards inside the gate, when we stopped to photograph a gang of delightful Dwarf Mongoose. A few hundred yards further on we were photographing Weaver Birds at their nests.

Dwarf Mongoose near the Voi Gate at Tsavo East National Park

Weaver Birds

We then headed for Kanderi Swamp, where we found Elephants, Coke's Hartebeest, Waterbuck, Impala and Warthog. We sat around for a while to see if anything else would come in and were entertained by the arrival of the biggest Yellow Baboon troop we have ever seen, with over 100 animals! There were Baboons of all sizes, from newborns to adults in a massive spread across half the swamp.

We then headed for the Public Campsite for a brew and to give us a chance to cool down in some shade, away from the mid-day sun. After a relaxing hour, we then headed along the Voi River, which looked to be completely dry. We saw Somali Ostrich and took some nice shots of Red-Billed Hornbill here before heading to the Pipeline Road. Here we found more Lesser Kudu and Elephants at the waterholes. We also parked up near one waterhole as a dazzle of Burchell's Zebra came in to drink.

Zebra drinking

After the left a second group came towards the waterhole but they became nervous at the sight of a tour group's minivan, which approached between them and the waterhole. They moved around to approach from a different direction but were startled and galloped off when one of the people in the minivan either dropped or threw an empty plastic water bottle out of the van.

One of the tour guides told us that a Cheetah had been spotted near one of the pumping stations on the pipeline road but we could not see it anywhere. However, we did see a Jackal drinking at one of the waterholes.

Thirsty Jackal

As evening drew in, we headed back to the campsite to pitch camp and prepare dinner. Karen would like it to be known that she built a wonderful fire, much better than Dave's sausage infested fire and infinitely better than Howard's non-fire.

Tomorrow we shall head up to the Galana River.

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