DAY FOURTEEN ~ How Many?!!!

Today we decided to head north to the Galana River, the only continuous source of water in the whole of Tsavo East National Park. It's sandy shores, fringed with Doum Palms, provide a stunning scene in the midst of arid and harsh desert terrain. It is also home to Crocodiles and Hippos in large numbers.

Galana River with part of the Yatta Plateaux in the background.

The life-source of Tsavo East is the ever-present Galana River.

Our route north took us past the Aruba Lodge once more and about a kilometre south of the lodge, we came across a pride of Lions walking through the bush. We were amazed as more and more Lions emerged from the bush, one after the other. We have see large prides in the Mara but never in Tsavo, so this was amazing for us to see, as thirteen Lions paraded past us before settling into a new rest spot under a thick thorn bush about 300 metres from the track. It seemed as if Tsavo East was rewarding us for coming back instead of going to the Mara!

One of two small cubs in the pride of 13 Lions.

The Lions just kept appearing through the bush!

Approaching the Galana, we had a great view of the Yatta Plateaux, the longest continuous plateaux in Africa. With fuel running low, we decided not to continue all the way along to Lugard's Falls and instead turned south on a track that we know we can find some spectacular Termite Mounds on.

The Yatta Plateaux.

One of many amazing Termite Mounds; this one was around 6 feet tall
but the largest we have seen is around 8 feet tall!

Back in the Voi end of the park, we took a drive along the Voi River Circuit to the campsite, meeting a herd of Masai Giraffe. A male was clearly courting a female in heat and she seemed to be responding. However, every time he tried to do the deed, she got shy and pulled away, clearly unhappy with the attention of another male, who was shadowing them closely. Eventually the interloper became too much for the randy male and he broke of to attack his rival. With several earth-shaking blows, they hammered each other but within 10 seconds it was all over, as they suddenly realised that their contest was futile. A third male had spirited the young female away whilst they battered one another!

Another failed romance...