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.
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.