Rupi Mangat

Maasai giraffe at Ecoscapes Conservancy Lake Naivasha

A Weekend Away on Lake Naivasha

Published on April 11, 2020April 10, 2020 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

By Rupi Mangat

Above: Maasai giraffe at Ecoscapes Conservancy Lake Naivasha

Published: Saturday Nation 4 April 2020

We’re in a land from the time of the dinosaurs. While there may or may not have been dinosaurs around Lake Naivasha, there’s a tiny wasp that has been around for some 60 million years ago when dinosaurs where going out of fashion.

Driving on Moi North tarmac road that circles part of the freshwater lake that is the highest of the rift lakes, the earth road that follows is a gorgeous grove of fig trees – Ficus wakefieldii to be precise because there are over 750 species of fig trees in the world. Each one of them has strong trunks with wide spread branches that look like a work of art in a natural gallery.

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Endangered and little known: Roan antelope

Published on April 4, 2020April 2, 2020 by Rupi Mangat1 Comment

By RUPI MANGAT

Above: The gate at Ruma National Park of the roan antelope. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Published: The East African Nation 14 April 2008

Only 40 surviving today – 2020.

If you think that only the African Rhino and elephant are endangered or a target of poachers, you are wrong. There are many other animals threatened with extinction who, unfortunately, are little known and rarely heard of.

Kenya’s roan antelope falls in this category. Today, this subspecies of the roan, Hippotragus equines langheldi, is only found in one tiny area in the world — Ruma National Park in western Kenya. At one time its territory stretched all the way from the Mara grasslands to Ruma. It was also found in other areas such as the Ithanga hills in Thika.

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Via Via Entebbe: Taste the World

Published on March 28, 2020March 26, 2020 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

Above:

Published: The East African Nation media 21- 27 March 2020

I’m super excited to be staying at Via Via in Entebbe, booked by the staff at the New Court View Hotel in Masindi that’s the nearest town from the epic Murchison Falls National Park that boasts the ‘most powerful waterfall in the world’. It’s my next stop.

Reception at Via Via Entebbe. Copyright Rupi Mangat — Welcome to Via Via Entebbe. Copyright Rupi Mangat

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The Delta Delights: Sailing downstream the Tana Delta

Published on March 20, 2020 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

Published: Travel News magazine: Dec 2019-Jan 2020

It’s a moonless night.

Above the Scorpion unfurls its tail across the delta’s width before the river crashes into the ocean. I’m enjoying a lone sail with the boatman along the mangrove-lined river with its dunes silhouetted against the night sky. Everything is elemental, pure and magical. As the stars sparkle above, the water is lit with phosphoresce.

This is heaven on earth.

A room at Delta Dunes. Copright Rupi Mangat. One time use only (800x600) — A room on the dunes at Delta Dunes. Copyright Rupi Mangat.

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Into Nyerere National Park – Tanzania’s Newest National Park in the vast southern side

Published on March 8, 2020 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

Above: At Africa Safari Selous. Courtesy Africa Safari Selous

Published: Satmag Nation newspaper 22 Feb 2020

The four days in Africa’s largest national park that has been re-named after the founding father of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in 2019 is adrenaline-filled.

The night glows as fireflies flit over the wetland at our abode, the African Safari Selous. A hyena giggles and an elephant walks past. It’s a beautiful place to be at for our inaugural entry into this historical park that was set aside as Africa’s first protected wildlife reserve in 1896 by the German colonial power.

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