Experience the best of Tsavo National Park East

Tsavo East National Park lies in the south-east of Kenya, between Nairobi and Mombasa along the main highway, and forms with Tsavo West one of the largest wildlife areas in the country. Its landscape is open and dry, a plain of red soil and thorny bush broken by baobab trees and crossed by the Galana River. Elephants bathe in the red dust, which colours their skin.

The Yatta Plateau, a long ridge formed by an ancient lava flow, marks the park's western side, and Mudanda Rock, a long outcrop, catches rainwater in a pool where elephants and buffalo come to drink. Lugard Falls is a stretch of rapids in the river. Lions, buffalo, giraffes, zebras and gerenuk antelope are among the animals, and Tsavo is also remembered for the man-eating lions that attacked railway workers in 1898.

Cooking along the Mombasa highway ranges from coast dishes such as coconut rice, spiced fish and pilau to the upcountry nyama choma and ugali. The park is hot and dry for much of the year, and in the driest months the animals concentrate along the Galana River.