In the morning, we arrived at the main gate and office of the Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve (🎟️721 KES) to check the options and reserve our guide (2400 KES) for the afternoon. This 420-sq-km tract of natural forest – the most significant indigenous coastal forest remaining in East Africa – is most famous as the home of the golden-rumped elephant shrew. It’s also home to about 240 bird species, 33 species of snake, flying handkerchief butterflies, and some impressive fauna: the shy Aders’ duiker (antelope) and plenty of Sykes’ monkeys and yellow baboons. But our main reason for stopping here was elephants, so we drove straight to the swamp and enjoyed sightings of elephants that came to drink at sundown.
