Mudanda Rock in Tsavo National Park
MUDANDA ROCK IN TSAVO NATIONAL PARK
Mudanda Rock in Tsavo National Park : Tsavo National Park is one of the main tourist destinations in Kenya and it is located in the southwestern part of Kenya. Tsavo National Park is divided into two that is Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Park. The Tsavo National Park is known for the ‘Man-Eaters’ and other animal species like the large herds of elephants, the Tsavo National Park is 13,747 square kilometres.
Tsavo East National Park.
Tsavo East National Park is the land of wildlife experience due to its strongholds in the ecosystem, the park is covered by different habitats that are dominated by rocky vegetation is found along the rivers at the park. The attractions in Tsavo East National Park are almost as the same as those in Tsavo West National Park. Tsavo East National Park (13,747 sq. km) is one ok Kenya’s oldest and largest parks and lies in a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert. Number of early stone age and middle stone age sites have been recorded and there is a great evidence of thriving late stone age economy from 6000 to 1300 years ago.
Mudanda Rock.
Mudanda rock is located in the south western shrub lands of Tsavo East National Park, few minutes’ worth of driving south of Manyani gate. Mudanda rock date back to the Precambrian era, it is said to have been used for drying strips of meat and as a lookout, by the local tribes in the past. Today it serves as one of view spots in the park where visitors can have a walking safari, with its top giving 3600 views in the park.
Mudanda rock is a1.6 km inselberg of stratified rock that acts as a water catchment that supplies a natural dam below, it offers an excellent vantage point for the hundreds of elephants and other wildlife that come to drink during the dry season.
Mudanda Rock is a huge whale of pinkish red stone that rises un expectedly out of the bush with a flight of steps cut in to its huge flank. Mudanda rock is Precambrian basement rock between 570 and 4,550 million years old; that its popular with leopards and elephants, and that thousands of years ago it used to be used by the hunter-gatherers known as the Waliangulu as a place where they dried their elephant meat ’Mudanda’, the place of dried meat. This is a long rock outcrop that is about 1.6km long and on the eastern side is a water hole that dries up at rare occasions. This dam is fed up by rain water from the rock and a little rain may collect to form large quantities of water, the rock is a good tourist lookout for the drinking animals and easy for tourists to see the various wildlife species during their safaris as they watch the wildlife drinking from their pool.
Mudanda rock is the only hiking destination but also a place for walking safaris, the rocks are located at the centre of the park where the travellers can have a good aerial views of the open savannah grassland. The rocks are dominated by the yellow baboons and the black faced monkeys which are also called the vervet monkey. And at the same time the rock also plays a great role as water catchment areas where the animals come and quench their thirst especially during the dry season.
During your visit in Mudanda rock you can do activities such as the game drives in the areas nearby, especially the dam where animals frequent, including herds of elephants or have a short walking safari to the top for a bird’s eye of the Yatta plateau, the dam below and animals that drink from it.
Mudanda rock, towering over a natural dam near the Manyani gate, this towering natural formation runs for over 1.5km, this attracts elephants in the dry season and is reminiscent of Australia’s Uluru (Ayers Rock), albeit on a much smaller scale thus leopards and elephants are among the wildlife to watch out for there.
Climbing on top of Mudanda Rock.
Its only when you start to scale the vastness of Mudanda rock that you realise just how massive it is. Running for 1.5 km, it’s like a vast pink runway, landing strip for the gods. A top its summit, streaked all the colours of pink and purple, the view over the wilderness is matchless. Here the great natural stone benches rise from the smooth pinkness; some are blood red as though drenched in elephant blood. Time spirals backwards, you can almost sense the presence of the hunter-gatherers.
The hippo pool in Mudanda rock.
On the far side of the rock, the hump metamorphoses into a cliff and drops steeply away into a great pool of water, here a thin vein of red moves out of the Khaki of the bush and makes its way to the water, it’s a herd of elephants. As they are near the water, they fan out each to stake his or her own claim to a particular stretch of water. They are dwarfed by the immensity of the rock, and so are the hippos as they rise to chortle and blow their little ears spinning like the radar dishes.
Best time to visit the mudanda rock.
The most reliable and favourite time to visit the Mudanda rock is during the dry season in the months of July to February that’s where you see more animals coming to drink from the pond near by that’s when you will as well view various animal species.
Tsavo National park provides the perfect safari destination, and if you’re looking for unique, authentic experience far from the overcrowded, more popular parks like the Maasai Mara and Amboseli which is close. And because the Tsavo is less than 100km from Kenya’s coast it makes a great combo for the special bush and beach gate away.
Mudanda rock is among the popular viewing spots at Tsavo National Parks, on the other hand it is not only hiking destination but also a place for walking safaris.
