The Tsavo East National Park is Kenya’s one of the largest and oldest Parks. Established in April of 1948, the Park is situated near a village known as Voi in the Taita District of Coast Province. The Park extends around 21,812 square km. The road and railway divides the Park into two sections- east and west.
Entry to the Park can be made through main gates, from Voi through the Manyani gate, from Malindi through the Sala gate, from Mombasa through the Bachuma gate. Savannah grassland is the core vegetation around the Tsavo East National Park. The River Galana, an important river in Kenya, passes through this Park. The landscape is unique and so attractive.
Wildlife
The Park is definitely one of the world’s largest game reserves providing a natural wild environment to its residents. If you can note down the list of animals you will be spotting, then your list would certainly contain aardwolf, yellow baboon, bat, cape buffalo, bushbaby, bushbuck, caracal, African wildcat, cheetah, African Civet, dik-dik, African hunting dog, African dormouse, Blue Duiker, bush duiker, red duiker, eland, African elephant, bat-eared fox, greater galago, gazelle, large-spotted genet, small-spotted genet, gerenuk, giraffe, African hare, springhare, Coke’s hartebeest, hunter hartebeest, East African hedgehog, spotted hyena, striped hyena, rock hyrax, tree hyrax, impala, black-backed jackal, side-striped jackal, klipspringer, Lesser Kudu, leopard, lion, banded mongoose, dwarf mongoose, large grey mongoose, marsh mongoose, slender mongoose, white-tailed mongoose, black faced vervet monkey, Sykes’ monkey, fringe-eared oryx, clawless otter, ground pangolin, crested porcupine, cane rat, giant rat, naked mole rat, ratel, bohor reedbuck, black rhinoceros, serval, spectacled elephant shrew, bush squirrel, East African red squirrel, striped ground squirrel, unstriped ground squirrel, ibex, suni, warthog, waterbuck, common zebra, and Grevy’s zebra.
The Park also accommodates a vast and vivid variety of bird species. You can easily find at least 500 bird species here including kestrels, ostriches, buzzards, weaver birds, secretary birds, hornbills, herons and starlings.
Camping & Lodging
Tsavo East National Park has got one lodge, several tented camps and public campsites. Voi Lodge is a very scenic lodge you don’t want to ever miss. Being a hinge shaped and perched on the top of a cliff-faced hill, this excellent Lodge is appears to be overlooking the beautiful Tsavo East plains of Kenya and extending as far as the undulating terrain of the Yatta Plateaus.
The tented camps at Tsavo East are Satao Camp, Tsavo Safari Camp, Galdessa camp, Epiya Chapeyu Camp, Patterson Safari Camp, and Sobo. Ndololo, Kandri, Main gate campsites are the camping sites even though these lack even the basic facilities.
Fees/Permits
Tsavo Park is open from 6.30am to 6.30pm daily. To enter the Park, you should have a Smartcard. Smartcards can be obtained and loaded at Voi gate. The entrance fee for Adults is $40, $20 for Children and for Students it is $10. There is also reduction in fees for Kenyan citizens and residents.