Tales from Aruba

Red elephants in Tsavo East National Park. PHOTO | RUPI MANGAT

What you need to know:

  • Besides the birds, herds of elephants, Jackson’s hartebeest, antelopes, warthogs and Maasai giraffes graze in the plains as we check into Ashnil Aruba Lodge at the end of the day.
  • Instead, driving slowly around a bare wind-swept patch of land with a few thorn bushes, we chance upon a lioness with seven cubs of mixed ages. The cubs are bundles of energy, playing with the mother and clambering over each other.
  • The lions of Tsavo are steeped in history. A pair dubbed the man-eaters of Tsavo devoured more than a 100 Indian railway workers including several Africans and Europeans working on the first modern infrastructure in Eastern Africa – the Uganda Railway – at the close of the 19th century. 

As we wander through the great plains of Tsavo, Steppe eagles from Russia soar in the great blue skies that are filled with other mighty raptors such as the bateleur eagles, white-backed vultures and lappet-faced vultures. They complete a list of the over 100 species of birds we’ve spotted in just four days.

Besides the birds, herds of elephants, Jackson’s hartebeest, antelopes, warthogs and Maasai giraffes graze in the plains as we check into Ashnil Aruba Lodge at the end of the day. Formerly known as Aruba Self-help Lodge, it was built in the 1960s by the banks of Aruba Dam when the legendary David Sheldrick was the (first) game warden of Tsavo East. The dam was built to relieve pressure on the Galana and Tsavo rivers during Tsavo’s very long dry seasons – the drought of the 1970s wiped out 10, 000 elephants in the park.

In the morning, we spot an antelope through powerful binoculars on our early morning bird walk. Seeing him dash across the lawn can only mean one thing – it has to be the hirola antelope.

Also known as the Hunter’s hartebeest and found in the arid lands of northern Kenya and Somalia, the hirola antelope is critically endangered with just between 300 to 500 left in the wild. There used to be about 15, 000 of them in the 1970s, but their numbers were reduced by hunting. In 1963 and 1996, some were brought into Tsavo East and today the number is about 77. It is exciting to spot this endangered antelope for the first time.

STEEPED IN HISTORY

It has all the marks of a hirola – white rump and back-swept horns, though this one has one horn. The watchman informs us that the antelope lost his other horn in battle with another hirola and has been banished from the herd. Despite the assurance that we would see more hirolas on the Aruba circuit, the incredibly shy herd remains elusive.

Instead, driving slowly around a bare wind-swept patch of land with a few thorn bushes, we chance upon a lioness with seven cubs of mixed ages. The cubs are bundles of energy, playing with the mother and clambering over each other. Driving back to the lodge, we see four more lions playfully chasing each other in the eventide, raising a hail of dust.

The lions of Tsavo are steeped in history. A pair dubbed the man-eaters of Tsavo devoured more than a 100 Indian railway workers including several Africans and Europeans working on the first modern infrastructure in Eastern Africa – the Uganda Railway – at the close of the 19th century. 

The night passes with few animals at the water pool in the silted dam and a red hot sun rises through an opening in a carpet of grey cloud. Armed with a picnic lunch from the lodge, we take the road to the high and hot 1.5-kilometre long breath-taking Mudanda Rock.

Walking to the farthest point of the rock past water pools, flowers in bloom and the emerging peaks of the Taita Hills, a thin strip follows the main road. It is the standard gauge railway on steep embankments blocking what until now was a free crossing for elephants and other game migrating to Tsavo West National Park.

The elephants now have to cross through the 70-metre-wide and five-metre-high underpasses between the two Tsavo parks, which together form the largest protected elephant park.