Baraza

Category: National Parks and protected areas | Date: May 06 2008 | By: admin

I spent the long weekend examining a potential WildlifeDirect partner and blogger- William Kimosop, the chief game warden of the local authority of Baringo Keiyo, Kiotabek and Marakwet. This photo essay hardly does the trip justice….. I am privelaged to have been invited on the pineering expedition across the Mid Rift Section of the Great Rift Valley which comprises of the Tugen Hills ranges of Koibatek and Baringo.

The plan is to manage this vast area as one conservation unit which includes the famous freshwater Lakes Baringo and the alkaline Bogoria with it’s flaming shores of flamingoes and steaming geysers. I had to see it and experience it to believe in what William has committed his life to.

We met at the equator at a place called Mogotio - it is the gateway to the region. William is the third from right. He is and has always been a big dreamer, to prepare for his big opening of the mid rift tourism circuit, he’s building a center at Mogotio, a one stop shop for all visitors.

He invited a group of us to participate in this pioneering safari with a simple instruction – “meet me at the equator”.

So the ten of us left Nairobi in 4 different cars most of us didn’t know each other. Someone was supposed to have done the food shopping…I wasn’t disappointed, we had a chef in the group, an ecologist, an anthropologist, a film producer, three photographers, an entomologist, and two young boys! While we stretched our legs at the equator we were greeted by laughing ladies all offering us their local craft - creative soap stone carvings. This set just the right tone.

The drive onwards was into the Tugen Hills which rise from the bottom of the rift valley ( 2700ft asl) to a over 9,185ft at Kapkut peak. This landscape presents some of the most dramatic landscapes in Kenya, with views of both sides of the rift valley from these hills that rise in the middle. The drive through these hills was on amazingly good roads – I should not have been surprised this is the home of the former president of Kenya, Mr. Daniel Arap Moi. The winding roads through the hills revealed how this fertile land is carefully cultivated on terraced slopes.

If drive was spectacular arriving at our camp was amazing. We immediately set up our tents and from mine I could see Lake Baringo, flamingo fringed Lake Bogoria and it’s steaming jets, and the Eastern escarpment of the Rift Valley about 25 km away. Just a short walk across the back of the hill and one can see the western escarpment of the rift valley – another 25 kilometers away. A short walk from camp was a clearing with the most incredible view, this spot was perfect for sundowners (read wine or gin and tonics), is called Gods Window.

This is a view from Gods Window!

I’m so jealous that William grew up here. He said that he had always believed that the two escarpments represented the edges of the world, and he felt enormously lucky to be in the center of the world atop of the Tugen hills! His dream is to establish walking trails across the rift valley taking advantage of traditional trading tracks and moving between protected areas, through communities and over dramatic landscapes. Within minutes of arriving we found this lovely fellow - according to my book he’s an Albertine rift tree frog - that’s weird, if it’s true he’s in completely the wrong rift valley! I’ll have to ask herpetologist Bob Drews of the Biodiversity race blog and Kim Howell of Dar es Salaam University.

Possibly (hopefully) a new species of frog! ( I thought it was a toad at first until I looked at some pictures of the Albertine frog)

Our camp is particularly special– it is the site that was set up for the Queen of England during her 1952 tour of Kenya. She was a princess a that time, but her trip was cut short when her father, the King, died. She arrived in Kenya a princess and left a queen. It comprised a simple clearing in the forest where trees had been left untouched, only the undergrowth cleared creating a lovely grassy shaded area. The view from the camp is awesome.

Sunrise over Mt. Kenya. What the queen missed!

Sadly, she didn’t visit any of the camps that had been set up especially for her. So Williams plan was that we do the tour for her - and so her official flag came everywhere with us!

William was so pleased that we took the Queens official flag on the front of one of the cars! Nobody recalls how we came to have this flag!

Over the four day stay we visited several of the 38 forest patches that have been set aside for conservation. These are interspersed with human settlements many of the people have preserved an old way of life amongst these forests. The plants were lovely.

We were told of three plants used for paint-this little thing looks green until you rub it on your palm - it’ turns bright orange! Another plant locally called lipstic tree - is used by young girls to paint their lips bright red.

…and this montane aloe turns deep purple when damaged. It’s a beautiful colour that is used to dye the local wool and for baskets.

The mountain protea was a joy to see as well… but

it was the giant ancient giant podo trees that we found most humbling. We gave this one a group hug.

In the middle of the hug we realised that this tree was colonized by an interesting and very well camouflaged day gecko. Funnily (or not) this gecko looks suspiciously unlike any other gecko in the book! Two new species in one day (I hope) - not bad hey?

We saw 9 leopard tortoises on the roads, one had been hit by a car and was dead - so we rescued any that we found on the road.

When he wasn’t rescuing tortoises, Dino was catching bugs. He told us fascinating stories about how the male carpenter bees ride on the females while mating - he hold on with specialised arms a that completely cover her eyes. In this position he can direct her flight while mating. Talk about multitasking!

Everything was weird and wonderful. Look at this spiderweb - built by a communal species - we saw more than 20 of these massive creatures in there -and the best part was having Dino Martins, Kenya’s top entomologist and author of Dudu diaries blog (everything about insects) with us to give us the inside stories about these critters.

We only had time for one proper hike to the top of Morop hill, a local peak. On arrival at the base the entire village arrived to greet us – it turns out that our safari was rather special, the first of it’s kind in decades. They had prepared a walking stick for each of us to help us up the steep rocky peak.

Though poor the people of this area are not suffering - they are successful farmers and only produce what they need.

We struggled up the winding path to the peak and any sense of achievement was killed, the barefoot kids had raced us up and were there with their dogs waiting with slightly amused expressions on their faces. It’s no wonder that in these hills grew some of the worlds most famous athletes Paul Tergat, Ishmael Chelanga and others.

Local boys found us fascinating

Children ran like mountain goats up the rocky slopes completely bare footed

Apart from an attack of a rather nasty stomach bug (picture witheld!), the only other drama was the rescue of a tiny puppy that was surely going to die. We named the tiny terrified pup Morop after the hill and Anderson, our guide took him home to Bogoria.

Not exactly handsome, Morop was thin, scared, tired and desperate for love when we took him. Dogs in this region are extremely stunted and may even represent a new breed.

Tiny Morop with his new dad Anderson, an amazing guide and bird expert, and a wonderful dog lover.

Local legend says that nobody can climb Morop hill only once …I can’t wait to go back and to continue the tour with William, Anderson and Nicholas - and this time to explore caves, fossil sites, seasonal forest pools, hidden waterfalls and other peaks and view points.