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Thursday, April 18, 2013
Friday, October 19, 2012
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Ruma National Park: "Dramatic Valley of the Roan Antelope, Oribi..."
The next planned outing for the club is to Ruma National Park which is famed to be the “dramatic valley of the Roan Antelope, Oribi”. Ruma was first gazetted in 1966 as Lambwe valley game reserve and acquired national park status in 1983. The park was established mainly to protect the Roan antelope which does not occur anywhere else in the country. The soils are largely black cotton clay. The surrounding area is settled, with a mix of small scale cultivation and grassy pasture land.
Ruma National park is situated in Lambwe Valley in South Nyanza, 140 km from Kisumu, 10km east of lake Victoria and south west of Homa bay. It lies on the flat floor of the Lambwe valley, bordered by the kanyamaa escarpment to the south east. It has a Hot and Humid climate with a mean annual rainfall is 1200-1600mm.
The main access is from Kisumu via Homa Bay 140 km or via Kisii and Migori. Both roads are tarmac. From Homa Bay and Migori, park is reached through gravel roads with distances of 24 km and 8 km respectively. From Homa Bay take the C20 main tarmac road in the direction of Rongo. After 10 km branch off to the right at Rodi Kopany and proceed 20 km to Mirogi. At Mirogi follow the signs to the Park, a distance of 12 km from Mirogi on a murram road.
The park’s activities include Wildlife watching, bird watching and driving circuits. The park has three main circuits. It is the last sanctuary of the endangered roan antelope which is not found anywhere else in the country. Other animals include the oribi, bohor reedbuck, leopard, buffalo, Jackson's hartebeest, Rothschild's giraffe, serval cat and hyena. The park is also renowned amongst ornithologists for its rare intra-African migrant, the blue swallow.
The guesthouse has three bedrooms, two doubles and one triple. There is a sitting room with a log fireplace and doors leading to a veranda with an open-plan dining area leading off the sitting room. There is one bathroom with shower and water-closet. There is also a kitchen equipped with stove, kitchen utensils, cutlery, crockery and glasses. Accommodation at the guest house comes with a caretaker, kerosene lamps, blankets, pillows, bed linen, mosquito nets, towels, soap and toilet tissue. There is also an annex for accommodating accompanying domestic staff or drivers. There are also 2 campsites at Sigama Hill and Fig Tree.
Dates: Depart from Kisumu Friday 28th August 2009 at 14:00HRS and return back to Kisumu on Sunday 30th August 2009Costs: KES 3,400 per person.
Those who show interest are always welcomed. Get in touch with makotieno@gmail.com to book your space.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Mount Elgon
The next planned outing for the club is at Mt Elgon where we intend to visit the Mt Elgon national park which is Kenya's second highest mountain. It lies 140km North East of Lake Victoria and is bisected by the Kenya-Uganda border. It is an ancient eroded volcano with a huge caldera and, on its summit, the spectacular flat topped basalt column known as Koitobos. Another unique feature of the mountain is the lava tube caves, some over 60m wide and frequented by elephants (and other animals) digging for salts. The mountain soils are red laterite. Mt Elgon is an important water catchment for the Nzoia river which flows into Lake Victoria and for the Turkwel river which flows into Lake Turkana.
Mt Elgon National Park was gazetted in 1968 and covers a narrow transect up the North Eastern slopes of the mountain, from lower montane forest to the caldera edge. The remaining forest and moorland is part of the Mt Elgon Forest Reserve. Together with the fauna and flora, the park is endowed with variety and breathtaking scenery of cliffs, caves, waterfalls, gorges, mesas, calderas, hot springs, and the mountain peaks. The most popular areas are the four explorable, vast caves where frequent night visitors such as elephants and buffaloes come to lick the natural salt found on the cave walls. Kitum cave, with overhanging crystalline walls, enters 200 m into the side of Mt. Elgon.
The breathtaking natural beauty of the park can be best appreciated from the Endebess Bluff where one gets a panoramic view of the areas' escarpments, gorges, mesas, and rivers. The highest peak of Mt. Elgon on the Kenya side, Koitoboss, measures 13,852 ft (4,155 m), and is easily reached by hikers in about two hours from the road's end. There is one picnic site at the Elephant platform with no facilities and the park has three short nature trails to Kiptum cave, Makingeny cave and the Elephant Bluff.
ACTIVITIES
• Vehicle circuits leading to animal viewing areas, the caves and Koitoboss peak.
• Self-guided walking trails (Ask for the Kitum Cave guide book at the gate)
• Hiking to Endebess Bluff and Koitoboss Peak
• Primate and bird watching
• Cave explorations
• Camping Photography
COMMON VEGETATION
The vegetation varies with altitude. The mountain slopes are covered with olive Olea hochstetteri and Aningueria adolfi-friedericii wet montane forest. At higher altitudes, this changes to olive and Podocarpus gracilior forest, and then a Podocarpus and bamboo Arundinaria alpina zone. Higher still is a Hagenia abyssinica zone and then moorland with heaths Erica arborea and Philippia trimera, tussock grasses such as Agrostis gracilifolia and Festuca pilgeri, herbs such as Alchemilla, Helichrysum, Lobelia, and the giant groundsels Senecio barbatipes and Senecio elgonensis.
The botanical diversity of the park includes giant podocarpus, juniper and Elgon olive trees cedar Juniperus procera, pillarwood Cassipourea malosana, elder Sambucus adnata, pure stands of Podocarpus gracilior and many orchids.
Of the 400 species recorded for the area the following are of particular note as they only occur in high altitude broad-leaf montane forest: Ardisiandra wettsteinii, Carduus afromontanus, Echinops hoehnelii, Ranunculus keniensis (previously thought endemic to Mount Kenya), and Romulea keniensis. http://www.kws.org/mt-elgon.html
Dates: Depart from Kisumu Friday 3rd April 2009 at 13:00HRS and return back to Kisumu on Sunday 5th April 2009
Costs: KES 3,200 per person
Those who show interest are always welcomed
Mt Elgon National Park was gazetted in 1968 and covers a narrow transect up the North Eastern slopes of the mountain, from lower montane forest to the caldera edge. The remaining forest and moorland is part of the Mt Elgon Forest Reserve. Together with the fauna and flora, the park is endowed with variety and breathtaking scenery of cliffs, caves, waterfalls, gorges, mesas, calderas, hot springs, and the mountain peaks. The most popular areas are the four explorable, vast caves where frequent night visitors such as elephants and buffaloes come to lick the natural salt found on the cave walls. Kitum cave, with overhanging crystalline walls, enters 200 m into the side of Mt. Elgon.
The breathtaking natural beauty of the park can be best appreciated from the Endebess Bluff where one gets a panoramic view of the areas' escarpments, gorges, mesas, and rivers. The highest peak of Mt. Elgon on the Kenya side, Koitoboss, measures 13,852 ft (4,155 m), and is easily reached by hikers in about two hours from the road's end. There is one picnic site at the Elephant platform with no facilities and the park has three short nature trails to Kiptum cave, Makingeny cave and the Elephant Bluff.
ACTIVITIES
• Vehicle circuits leading to animal viewing areas, the caves and Koitoboss peak.
• Self-guided walking trails (Ask for the Kitum Cave guide book at the gate)
• Hiking to Endebess Bluff and Koitoboss Peak
• Primate and bird watching
• Cave explorations
• Camping Photography
COMMON VEGETATION
The vegetation varies with altitude. The mountain slopes are covered with olive Olea hochstetteri and Aningueria adolfi-friedericii wet montane forest. At higher altitudes, this changes to olive and Podocarpus gracilior forest, and then a Podocarpus and bamboo Arundinaria alpina zone. Higher still is a Hagenia abyssinica zone and then moorland with heaths Erica arborea and Philippia trimera, tussock grasses such as Agrostis gracilifolia and Festuca pilgeri, herbs such as Alchemilla, Helichrysum, Lobelia, and the giant groundsels Senecio barbatipes and Senecio elgonensis.
The botanical diversity of the park includes giant podocarpus, juniper and Elgon olive trees cedar Juniperus procera, pillarwood Cassipourea malosana, elder Sambucus adnata, pure stands of Podocarpus gracilior and many orchids.
Of the 400 species recorded for the area the following are of particular note as they only occur in high altitude broad-leaf montane forest: Ardisiandra wettsteinii, Carduus afromontanus, Echinops hoehnelii, Ranunculus keniensis (previously thought endemic to Mount Kenya), and Romulea keniensis. http://www.kws.org/mt-elgon.html
Dates: Depart from Kisumu Friday 3rd April 2009 at 13:00HRS and return back to Kisumu on Sunday 5th April 2009
Costs: KES 3,200 per person
Those who show interest are always welcomed
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