The Rough Guide to Kenya - Softcover

Trillo, Richard

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Softcover

ISBN 10: 1858288592 ISBN 13: 9781858288598

Publisher: Rough Guides, 2002

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INTRODUCTION

Lying on the equator, with the glaciated peaks of Mount Kenya – second highest mountain in Africa – rising from a natural environment of exceptional beauty, Kenya is a hugely rewarding place to travel. The country’s dramatically diverse geography has resulted in a great range of natural habitats, while its history of migration and conquest has brought about a complex social panorama. But if the world-famous national parks, colourful ethnic mix and superb beaches lend an exotic image, the glossy hype of the tourism industry ignores Kenya’s post-colonial poverty and deep political tensions.

In any case, treating Kenya as a succession of tourist sights isn’t the most stimulating way of experiencing the country. Travelling independently, or at least with eyes open (something this book is designed to facilitate), you can enter the very different world inhabited by most Kenyans: a ceaselessly active landscape of farm and field, of streams and bush paths, of wooden and corrugated-iron shacks, tea shops and lodging houses, of crammed buses and pick-up vans, of overloaded bicycles, and of streets wandered by goats, chickens and toddlers. Off the more heavily trodden tourist routes, you’ll find a rewarding degree of warmth, openness and curiosity in Kenya’s towns and villages. And out in the wilds, there is an abundance of superb scenery – vistas of rolling savannah dotted with Maasai and their herds, high Kikuyu moorlands, dense forests bursting with bird song and insect noise, and stony, shimmering desert – all of which comes crisply into focus when experienced in the context of an economically beleaguered African nation four decades after Independence.

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About the Author:

Richard Trillo has been visiting Africa since 1978. He is the coauthor of The Rough Guide to Kenya, The Rough Guide to Madagascar, and The Rough Guide to First-Time Africa (with Emma Gregg). Trillo was the director of communications for Rough Guides in London from 1990 to 2006. He is currently the Kenya program manager for Expert Africa, a UK-based tour company specializing in safaris and vacations to southern and eastern Africa.

WHERE TO GO

The coast and major game parks are the most obvious targets, and if you come to Kenya on an inclusive tour you’re likely to have your time divided between these two attractions. Despite the impact of human population pressures, Kenya’s wildlife spectacle remains a fascinating and addictive experience and most visitors are enchanted by their safaris. Kenya’s million-odd annual visitors are easily absorbed in such a large country, and there’s nothing to prevent you escaping the predictable tourist bottlenecks: even on an organized tour, you should not feel constrained to follow the prescribed plan.

The vast majority of the population live in the rugged highland areas in the southwest quarter of the country, where the ridges are a mix of shamba smallholdings and plantations. Running through the heart of these highlands sprawls the Great Rift Valley, an archetypal East African scene of dry, thorn tree savannah, splashed with lakes and studded by volcanoes. It’s great walking country, as are the high forests and moors of the Central Highlands and Mount Kenya itself – a major target and a feasible climb for most people. Nairobi, the capital, on the highlands’ southern edge, is generally used only as a gateway to Kenya, but has plenty of diversions to occupy your time while arranging an onward trip. The national parks and reserves, watered by seasonal streams, are mostly located in savannah country on the highland fringes.

Further west, towards Lake Victoria, lies gentler countryside, where you can travel for days without seeing another foreign visitor and get perhaps the best immersion in Kenyan life and culture. Beyond the rolling tea plantations of Kericho and the hot plains around the port of Kisumu lies the steep volcanic massif of Mount Elgon, astride the Ugandan border. The little-known Kakamega Forest rainforest reserve, with its unique wildlife, is here too, and more than enough reason to strike out west.

In the north, the land is desert or semi-desert, broken only by the highlight of Lake Turkana in the northwest, almost unnaturally blue and gigantic in the wilderness. Although northeast Kenya, towards the Somalian border, is currently unsafe for travellers, the routes up to Turkana are still open, and you can even get there by public transport. For serious adventure, it is one of the most spectacular and memorable of all African regions.

Separating Kenya’s interior – or "up-country" – from the Indian Ocean, the arid Maungu Plains form a barrier which accounts in large part for the separate history and culture of the coast. Here, a distinct Islamic Swahili civilization exists with a long historical record in its mosques and tombs and the ruins of several ancient towns cut from the jungle, while along the length of the coast, beyond the white sandy beaches – invariably shaded by coconut palms or casuarina trees – runs an almost continuous coral reef, protecting a shallow, safe lagoon from the Indian Ocean.

WHEN TO GO

Kenya has complicated and rather unpredictable climatic shifts. Broadly, the pattern is that January to March is hot and dry, while from April to June it is hot and wet, a period known as the "long rains". From July until October the weather is very warm and dry, and then come the "short rains", making November and December warm and wet. At high altitudes, however, it may rain at almost any time. Western Kenya has a scattered rainfall pattern influenced by Lake Victoria, while the eastern half of the country, and especially the coast itself, are largely controlled by the Indian Ocean’s monsoon winds – the dry northeast monsoon (kaskazi) blowing from December to March and the moist southeast monsoon (kusi) from April to November, which normally brings the heaviest rain in May. Temperatures are determined largely by altitude: you can reckon on a drop of 6�C (or 11�F) for every 1000m you climb from sea level. Nairobi, for example, (at 1600m, higher than the Cairngorms or the Appalachians) has a moderate climate, and can get down to 5�C (41�F) at night.

The main tourist seasons tie in with the rainfall patterns: the biggest influxes are in December and January and, to a lesser extent, July and August. Dry-season travel has a number of advantages, not least of which is the greater visibility of wildlife as animals are concentrated along the diminishing watercourses. July and August are probably the best months, overall, for game-viewing. October to January are the months with the clearest seas for snorkelling and diving – especially November. In the "long rains", the mountain parks are sometimes closed, as the muddy tracks are undrivable. But the rainy seasons shouldn’t deter travel unduly: the rains usually come only in short afternoon or evening cloudbursts, and the landscape is strikingly green and fresh even if the skies may be cloudy. There are bonuses, too, in the lack of tourists: hotel and other prices are reduced and people generally have more time for you.

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