DAY 12: TSAVO
At 21 000km?, this is Kenya's largest park by far, but much of the eastern section is closed to the public. Most of the land is open savannah and bush woodlands inhabited by buffalo, lion, antelope, gazelles, giraffe and zebra. Despite a drastic fall in the elephant population in the 1970s there are still many large herds.
Tsavo is a combination of dramatic escarpment landscapes combined with the raw, untamed flavour of one of Africa's great wilderness areas. Mzima Springs, in Tsavo East, is one of the best places to watch crocodile and hippo.
Here, crystal clear water bubbles out of the ground at a rate of 500million litres (110million gallons) a day.
The spring is fed by snow melting off Mount Kilimanjaro, and a pipeline from the springs provides Mombasa with a large portion of its drinking water.
A distinctive feature of Mzima is an underwater glass cage built by a wildlife film crew. Here you can descend a set of stairs, and encased in a glass hide, watch shoals of tilapia, and the occasional crocodile or hippo glide by.