Nature places in Africa
Nairobi National Park is quite unique - where else can you watch giraffes, antelopes and lions wander past your car to a backdrop of skyscrapers? Its location is convenient for those with limited time on their hands, and the park is accessible by 2WD. While it cannot compare to Kenya's premium wildlife parks, the bizarre combination of urban life and African wildlife is well worth the time - and hefty fee. The park also boasts a successful rhino sanctuary, and the Kenya Wildlife Service headquarters are located by the main gate. A fence separates the park from the city, but human-wildlife conflicts still arise when predators venture out of the park and make for the suburbs.
If you have the slightest interest in hippos, you must visit the large freshwater lake Lake Naivasha, which lies in the Great Rift Valley. However, there are only enough activities to spend a single day/night at this lake, which is located 1880 meters above sea level. There is a very large number of hippos in the lake, and when darkness falls, the animals, who spend most of the day in the water, will emerge from the lake and graze on land. Tent sites are fenced off, since hippos are extremely dangerous. They are actually the large animal in Africa that kills most people per year. But you can sit safely and in tranquility in small cabins on stilts and observe/hear the animals eat in the darkness.
Kenya’s prime spot for diving, snorkeling and dolphin watching is on the southern most tip of the coast. Should this not be for you, what about organising a relaxing dhow-trip and exquisite lunch at Wasini Island, which is also the location for a number of ecolodges. Divers and snorkelers will be happy with the national park’s pristine coral reefs and abundance of marine life, including sea turtles, which there is a fairly good chance of spotting. Above water, traditional dhows take visitors on both dolphin and whale spotting tours. Most accommodations along the coast, all the way up to Mombasa, can arrange for this. Alternatively, make your way to the local sea-side community of Shimoni and deal directly with the captains yourself.
If you want a remote safari experience without travelling more than a day (by car) from Nairobi, Meru National Park might just be for you. Huge, hot and dusty, but with more wildlife than Tsavo, Meru offers some good wildlife viewing for those with a bit of patience. The park has cheetahs, leopards, lions, reticulated giraffes, elands and a lot of birds. Staying in one of KWS's self-catering cottages inside the park is particularly rewarding, as giraffes, elephants and lions frequently make their way through. You need to look for the wildlife though - this is not the Mara or Lake Nakuru. But if you want to have a park largely to yourself, Meru is a good choice.
If you are going to Kenya on safari, a couple of days at Lake Nakuru National Park is very recommendable! The National Park lies in the Great Rift Valley 140 kilometers northwest of Nairobi. The area is extremely rich in various animal species - and the concentration of animals per square kilometer is unusually high. There are giraffes, rhinos, water buffalos, monkeys and zebras in one big hotchpotch, and not least a very good chance of seeing the elusive leopard, (which is one of the Big Five). The large freshwater lake - Lake Nakuru is filled with thousands of pelicans, flamingos and storks, which are amazing to watch - especially on a morning game drive at sunrise.
Besides other game, you can find "The Big Five" (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo) in Masai Mara. A part from dry savanna, there are also rivers with crocodiles and hippos. You may walk around here, but you need to be accompanied by an armed guide, if a crocodile or a lion should suddenly attack. So a walk along the rivers is not for the faint-hearted! However, it is amazing when you experience large animals close to you or get to see an animal hunt. The park covers approx. 1500 square km, so sometimes you need to drive around a bit longer to find wildlife. At the entrance to the park you are often "attacked" by eager Masai women, who want to sell homemade jewelry. They are persistent - but not aggressive or nasty. Furthermore, be aware that there is significantly less wildlife to see, when the annual animal migration into Serengeti National Park in Tanzania takes place.
Tsavo East National Park is huge, hot and dusty. There are three reasons to go here instead of opting for more popular destinations such as Masai Mara or Amboseli: it is much closer to the coast (and thus easier to combine with a visit to Mombasa), you want to be able to drive around all day and barely see another person, or you like hot, dusty places. The entire park has a red tint to it, coloured as it is by the dust. There is a huge number of elephants here - also coloured red by the dust - but self-drivers need to be aware that they can be considerably more aggressive than their Amboseli or Mara counterparts as a result of heavy poaching during the 1960s and 1970s. While there is a decent population of lions, the sheer size of the park - and the abundance of shrubs and bushes - makes spotting them a challenge. Tsavo East makes for an interesting contrast to many of the lusher parks and reserves in Kenya, but most people would find it difficult to justify spending more than a few days here.
Tsavo West is separated from Tsavo East by the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, but has a very different character to its twin. The landscape is arguably more attractive here, with plenty of woodland, rolling hills and rocky outcrops (although it is no less hot, dry or dusty). There is a spring, where visitors can walk around and look at hippos and crocodiles. There are also lava fields and a rhino sanctuary in the park, which is easily accessed from Mombasa due to its position right along the highway. The southern half of the park, towards Tanzania, is very remote and sees few visitors. Like its eastern counterpart Tsavo West has a large elephant population, and it is here that the famed man-eating lions of Tsavo - immortalised in "The Ghost and the Darkness" - harassed railway workers a century or so ago. While their population has dwindled, there are still plenty of lions and leopards in the park.
Described by international media as a "real world Planet of the Apes", and known locally as Monkey Island, is actually a small archipelago. When a US medical company left their test facilities here, more than sixty chimpanzees were abandoned. Having survived both Hepatitis testing and Liberia's civil wars, the primates rely on food delivery by canoe as they are unable to swim. Visitors can join these food runs if arrangements are made in advance and ought to bring an extra load of bananas to help the efforts. You might want to bring an umbrella too, if not for the intense sun then as protection from some pretty accurate poop-throwing.
For national parks in Madagascar, this one is a little bit different. Where in most parks people first come for watching typical Malagasy animals and endemic fauna, in Andringitra it is all about hiking and beautiful scenery. It takes a while to reach the national park because the road is rough and you need a 4x4 to get there. Whether you opt for a day hike or go on a longer trek with the ascent of Madagascar's highest climbable mountain: Pic d'Imarivolanitra (formerly known as Pic Bobby), you will be able to enjoy some beautiful and diverse landscapes. In the lower regions, where there are still villages, you have the red earth and rice fields, but in the higher regions, the scenery starts to look more like a moonscape.