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The 12-day, 120-mile walk (75 km) across Kenya's Tsavo National Parks is the best I have experienced for imparting the sense of connectedness that I feel is paramount to Africa travel. What motivated its creator – Kenyan mountaineer Iain Allen – is that the spring snow-melt from Mt Kilimanjaro and all the watershed areas of that great mountain – Africa's highest today - are connected to the Tsavo lowlands below. He liked the idea of connectedness. So this walking safari was born. It crosses two ecosystems: the riverine forest along the Tsavo River which rises in the highlands around Kili, and made up of thickets of fig and tamarind trees, doum and raffia palms, gives way to the east to more open acacia forest and savannah and finally to semi-arid desert. Along the way the Tsavo River reaches the confluence of the Athi River where it becomes the Galana River which flows into the Indian Ocean. Within these two ecosystems certain animals have adapted better – like hippo in the heavy riverine vegetation near the Tsavo River – and elephants along the Galana. I got the closest to elephants while on foot than I have anywhere else in Africa, and after the first few close encounters, under Iain's tutelage, I felt perfectly at ease with it. This is a walk not quite like any other: it incorporates breath-taking geography and wildlife sightings with geology, history and animal behavior lessons, the physical challenge of walking no less than 10 miles (6.5 kms) every day across Kenya's largest national parks (they make up the size of Wales) under what is often a blistering hot sun, and extremely comfortable camps and fine dining.
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