In 1997 Tropical Ice embarked upon one of its greatest adventures. A small group trekked all the way from the summit of Kilimanjaro to the beaches of the Indian Ocean. This “Summit to Sea” journey crossed 500 kilometres of country, took us 22 days, and 99% of the trek followed game trails. One member of the expedition, Rick Ridgeway, later wrote a book of this adventure “The Shadow of Kilimanjaro”, which has become one of the most successful travel books in North America.

The most exciting part of this great walk was the central section which traversed the whole of Tsavo West National Park and Tsavo East National Park. In the former we hiked the entire Tsavo River until it joined the confluence of the Athi River. From here we followed the Galana River all the way to the edge of the park. This 14 day portion of the expedition yielded superior game viewing across an ever-changing landscape. Tsavo West is densely vegetated with a constant backdrop of rocky mountains, while Tsavo East is open, semi-desert country. The Tsavo River is narrow and winding, whilst the Galana is wide, open with exotic palm-fringed beaches.

Tropical Ice is now offering annual departures of this "Great Walk" across Tsavo. Our 14 day, 120 mile route, will follow the same game-trails taken by the original expedition. Moving camp every day we will hike the Tsavo River past occasional First World War forts, to the place where the infamous "Man-eater's den. We'll then hike the entire Galana River, home to large elephant populations, and the unique maneless lions (See National Geographic Adventure, June 2000), all the way to the edge of the park.




"The Great Walk" will be set during the prime game viewing seasons of the year. This is a great chance to leave the 20th and 21st centuries far behind, and visit the Africa of the explorers.

Maximum 8 people - Iain Allan guides every departure.