Tsavo West National Park

From the sight of fifty million gallons of crystal-clear water from the under-parched lava rock that is the Mzima Springs to the Shetani lava flows, Tsavo West is a beautiful, rugged wilderness. The savannah ecosystem comprises open grasslands, scrublands, and Acacia woodlands, belts of riverine vegetation and rocky ridges, including the Poacher’s Lookout, where visitors can see the teeming herds in the plains below.

The park offers some of the most magnificent game viewing in the world, and attractions include elephants, rhinos, Hippos, lions, cheetahs, leopards, Buffalos, wild dogs, African civets, servals and caracals, diverse plant and bird species, including the threatened corncrake and near threatened Basra Reed Warbler.

The park has the Mzima Springs, a freshwater oasis in the heart of Tsavo’s dry savannah. The Mzima spring is a fascinating phenomenon. Fed by water that drains from the slopes of Kilimanjaro and the Chyulu hills, it forms a network of underground streams that flow above the Non- Porous Precambrian rock surfacing south of its source in the vast Tsavo.

Moreover, the park has a mass of black lava flow known as the Shetani Lava flow- A relict of the most recent major volcanic eruption in the Tsavo area. Shetani is a solidified stream of Magma that erupted from the southeast end of the Chyulu Hills. According to the local oral tradition, many people and animals were buried alive by the fast-flowing fiery stream of Lava, accounting for its Swahili name Shetani which means Devil.