Goodboons' Blog: The man-eaters of Tsavo National Park

Tsavo Park reconciles us with East African National Parks. Although the staff at the Malindi’s Kenya Wildlife Office were neither pleasant our helpful, the rangers at Sala Gate were cheerful and welcoming. The park itself is well maintained and the game plentiful.

We arrived at noon and drove along the Galana River for a few hours, and even though it was midday we saw waterbuck by the dozen, elephant, impala, dik-diks, hippos, zebra, crocodiles, a Goliath Heron and an Egyptian Vulture. We stopped for a picnic of bread, cheese and tomatoes next to the river, being careful that there were no crocs, hippos or lions near us. We had been out of the car a few minutes when we heard a rumbling sound and saw dust rising about one hundred metres away… buffalo! Fortunately they were actually running away from us, and not towards us.

Lunch spot by the Galana river

40km of uneventful tracks took us south of the river to the Aruba dam where we soon spotted a lioness under a tree. As far as we know it could have been a lion. We are not sure because the male Tsavo lions do not have manes. It is said that their higher than average testosterone level causes them to be less hairy. It also makes them more aggressive than average, and the story “the man-eaters of Tsavo” known from the movie “Ghosts in the Darkness” illustrates the point. It tells of 2 lions that ate their way through 147 workers of the Ugandan railway at the beginning of the 20th century!

The Ugandan railway line on the edge of the Tsavo National Park : 147 of the workers who built it where eaten by 2 lions ("the man-eaters of Tsavo") at the beginning of the 20th century!

Of course, we stopped the engine to look at our lion at leisure. When she stood up for a stroll, we tried to start the car again to follow her…but the car wouldn’t start! Oh oh… it has happened before: the immobiliser. Simple enough to fix, but in order to do so Steve has to get out to open the bonnet and disconnect the battery. With the lion less than 20 meters away it is out of question….
The lioness finally taking a stroll... thus allowing Steve to get out of the car to fix the immobiliser

After sometime the lion walked a bit further away. Then two safari vehicles arrived from a nearby lodge. They were too busy watching the lion to imagine our situation and the lion busy watching them. Steve decided to get out of the car (with Caro keeping a worried watch over the landscape of tall yellow grasses) and fixed the car!

Quite an adrenaline rush!

The rest of the day was more peaceful, with the highlight being the sight of hundreds of red elephants and buffalo on the Kwanderi swamps and a giraffe scratching its ear.

Red elephants