Save the Elephant’s Safari

Nearly four years ago, when I was in Africa for several weeks, I had the pleasure of doing some conservation work in Kenya. One of our stops was in East Tsavo, where I accompanied the rangers on de-snaring missions, for several days under the hot African sun. One of my most memorable moments in Kenya, happened during this trip. While at Salt Lick in Tsavo national park, I joined the vet team from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, to photograph them while darting an elephant and fixing it’s wounded leg.

Here is a blog post I wrote about the experience in October of 2010. Later that evening the elephants all came down to the water hole. In the stillness of the night you could hear their every movement. Soon they began interacting and trumpeting loudly for minutes at a time. It was magical and I have dreamed to return to this place ever since.

Tomorrow I will depart on a private “Save the Elephants” safari. I will be heading out to Tsavo to visit it as a photographer for the first time. Have you ever seen the movie, “The Ghost and the Darkness?” If not, I highly recommend watching it. It is the Hollywood version of the famous man eating lions in Tsavo, during the building of the Uganda-Mombasa Railway in 1896. Tsavo is filled with history. Tsavo East and Tsavo West combined forms one of the largest nationals parks in the world and covers a massive 4% of Kenya’s land area. Of coarse I am going to be tracking lions in this area, as their behavior tends to be different in Tsaveo, compared to other reserves; don’t worry, at the moment, they are not known as man-eaters.

While in Tsavo, I will be staying at a private house retreat and tented camp, maintained by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. I will see their continued work from the elephant Orphanage based in Nairobi. Once the babies are old enough they are transported to Tsavo, where they eventually released back into the wild! I will also get to revisit Salt Lick, where I captured the image at the top of this post. Please visit the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to learn more about the amazing work they have been doing to “Save the Elephants”, for over 3o years.

This is all part of my 80 days in Africa. Make sure to follow the journey though my social media pages. Just click on the social media buttons in the top right side bar.