Author: Rupi Mangat

2013 Ecotourism Journalist of the Year (Ecotourism Society of Kenya) | Editor, Komba Magazine (Wildlife Clubs of Kenya) | Contributor, The East African and Saturday Magazine (Nation)
Lake Chala - a crater lake on slopes of Kilimanjaro - with the Kenya-Tanzania border running through the middle. Copyright Luca Borghesio

In the Chasm of Chala

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In search of a palanquin

Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 29 April 2017

Lake Chala - a crater lake on slopes of Kilimanjaro - with the Kenya-Tanzania border running through the middle. Copyright Luca Borghesio
Lake Chala – a crater lake on slopes of Kilimanjaro – with the Kenya-Tanzania border running through the middle. Copyright Luca Borghesio

Lounging in the circular living room of Grogan’s Castle with stunning views of Kilmanjaro’s two peaks Mawenzi and Kibo on the western side, the Pare mountain in Tanzania on the southern side and the plains of Tsavo on the eastern side, l chance upon an issue of Old Africa with a really interesting story of Lake Chala –which leads us to this little visited jewel lake in the caldera of Kilimanjaro straddling Kenya and Tanzania.

It’s a story of an epic expedition in 1891 by a woman – May French Sheldon – an American explorer and writer.  Way ahead of her time, she left London unaccompanied by a male escort carrying gold rings to present to African chiefs and people who would help her in her explorations.

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Winds of Change

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Critically Endangered vultures threatened by wind farm

Published The East African, Nation media 22-28 April 2017

Ruppell’s vulture landing – copyright Munir Virani

Since 2015 four of the eight species of vultures in Kenya have been listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This means they are one step short of becoming extinct.

ruppells-vulture-photo-by-s-kapila-633x370
Ruppell’s vulture Copyright Shiv Kapila

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Lappet-faced vulture with Tawny eagle in Tsavo West National Park at Lake Jipe on the Kenya-Tanzania border Copyright Luca Borghesio

Jaunt at Jipe

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With an amazing raptor-filled day in Tsavo West

Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 22 April 2017

Above: Lappet-faced vulture with Tawny eagle in Tsavo West National Park at Lake Jipe on the Kenya-Tanzania border
Copyright Rupi Mangat

Aeriel view of Grogan's Castle with Kilimanjaro Copyright Grogan's Castle
Aeriel view of Grogan’s Castle with Kilimanjaro Copyright Grogan’s Castle

The road from Grogan’s Castle is a long thin thread through a bush-filled veld of Prosopis juliflora, one of the most terrible invasive plants in the world. These water-suckers compete for water with indigenous species and are so aggressive that one was found with roots at 175 feet deep in the earth.

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Aeriel view of Grogan's Castle with Kilimanjaro Copyright Grogan's Castle

Musing at Grogan’s Castle

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Aeriel view of Grogan’s Castle with Kilimanjaro
Copyright Grogan’s Castle

Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 15 April 2017

He couldn’t have chosen a better spot to build his castle.

Grogan’s Castle – at the entrance overlooking the plains of Taveta and Tsavo Copyright Grogan’s Castle
Outside Grogan’s room – sunset on Kilimanjaro Copyright Grogan’s Castle

In the first light of the day the 360-degree panorama from Grogan’s Castle is dramatic – with the two ice-clad peaks – Mawenzi and Kibo – of Kilimanjaro from the veranda of the legendary maverick – Grogan himself.

Grogan’s bed – he really did sleep in it. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Grogan’s bedroom – best room in the castle with fantastic panorame of Taveta plains and north Pare mountains – Copyright Rupi Mangat

In my mind’s eye l can see him hoping off his eccentric bed – a flat metal sheet bolted against the wall and encased in a wire cage – nothing frivolous about it – and taking in the grandeur of it all – the Pare mountains in Tanzania that are part of the Eastern Arc Mountains stretching from Kenya’s Taita Hill to Tanzania’s legendary Usambara’s and more. Circling around, his eye would have taken in the shimmer of Jipe, the lake on the foothills of the Pare and shared between Kenya and Tanzania and then the wilderness of Tsavo.

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