TAWI LODGE is located on a private conservancy of 6,000 acres just five minutes from Kimana Gate, the eastern entrance to Amboseli National Park.

TAWI Lodge is settled at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro (5,963m) – the world’s largest free-standing mountain. The community-run conservancy, together with African WildlifeFoundation, promotes and maintains a harmonious development for the wildlife and the Maasai people along the corridor between Amboseli and the Chyulu Hills.

Amboseli National Park covers 400 km2 of plains redeemed by the stunning spectacle of Kilimanjaro towering over it. Amboseli is one of the most popular parks in Kenya. The wildlife viewing is great all year round.

The name Amboseli comes from the word “empusel” which in the Maa language means “salty dust”. The area is indeed covered with dusty volcanic ash. The park is nevertheless quite lush in places, because the melting snows of Kilimanjaro flow underground into the park, continually feeding water to springs, swamps and marshes.

The highest mountain of Africa provides to Amboseli a special magical atmosphere at sunrise and sunset. This National Park has always been a favourite spot for wildlife and is, like Tsavo, elephant country. There are over 1000 elephants in the park eco-system, featuring some of the largest elephant’s population in Africa. There is always a concentration of animals along the swamps which are permanent enough to keep hippo all year and there are large herds of elephants and buffalos and a profusion of birdlife. Lions are very rare, but cheetahs are seen fairly frequently. Good numbers of herbivores are present: giraffes, oryx antelope, wildebeests, zebra and gazelles.

Elephant research projects have been carried out for 30 years in Amboseli with the famous conservationist Dr Cynthia Moss and have ensured the survival of the elephants as well as the Amboseli ecosystem.

The elephants are no doubt the kings of the park and they are available in big numbers. These elephants can be seen and photographed easily because of the flat terrain. The elephants in Amboseli, which are also considered to be among the biggest in the country, mainly enjoy the swamps, in which they get cool waters that they share with hippos that hide beneath the papyrus.

A large resident population of wildbeest together with Burchell’s zebra, also have a home in the park. Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelles, bufallo, warthog, black rhino, Maasai giraffe, impala, waterbuck and dik-dik, are also among the grass-eaters there. Baboons and vervet monkeys live in the scarce woodlands.

Lions, spotted hyenas, wild cats, jackals and caracals represent the carnivores. Cheetah and leopards are not so common. As far as birds are concerned, there exists more than 400 species, including pelican, flamingo, kingfisher, African fish eagle, ibis, secretary bird, crowned crane, grey and Goliath herons, cattle egret, black-winged stilt, little grebe, Egyptian goose, martial eagle, pigmy falcon, Maasai ostrich, marabou stork, white-backed vulture, lappet-faced vulture, yellow-necked spurfowl, kori bustard, hornbills and many others. The park gathers a big population of water birds after the rains.