Tag: travel

Forest fern in Gatamaiyu forest lining the forest path - copyright Rupi Mangat

Chasing Waterfalls at Gatamaiyu Forest

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A forest of the Kikuyu Escarpment

Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 13 May 2017

A walk in the Gatamaiyu forest – – copyright Rupi Mangat
Fragrant lily by forest office – – copyright Rupi Mangat
Forest fern in Gatamaiyu forest lining the forest path – copyright Rupi Mangat

Along the path in the forest that rhymes with mutamaiyu or the African olive tree or the Olea europaea (African variety) someone signals to the left and a whole bunch of humans vanish into the evergreen forest that’s part of the larger Kereita forest – a place of the warriors – on the Kikuyu escarpment.

Following the markings on the GPS the group’s looking for a stunner – the Bar-tailed trogan which l have seen at eye-level in the forests of Mount Kenya. It’s not a bird that you ordinarily find flying around – although if we did, the world would be more colourful.

A walk in the Gatamaiyu forest - - copyright Rupi Mangat
A walk in the Gatamaiyu forest – – copyright Rupi Mangat

“Gatamaiyu forest is an IBA,” tells the doyenne of all birds, the amazing Fleur Ng’weno. “It was listed as an Important Bird Area because it has a wide variety of forest highland birds and also because the Abbot’s starling is found here.”

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Tortilis Camp overlooking the plains of Amboseli and Mt Kilimanjaro Copyright Rupi Mangat

Terrific Tortilis

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Amboseli’s award-winning gold-rated eco-camp still thrills

Above: Tortilis Camp – overlooking the tortilis-filled plains of Amboseli – copyright Rupi Mangat

Published Nation newspaper, Saturday magazine 6 May 2017

DSC07020 (800x600)Twenty-two years ago l landed at Tortilis Camp bordering Amboseli National Park and l was enchanted – a tiny camp, beautifully built in a grove of equally beautiful thorn trees that looked like they had been sculpted to adorn the camp.

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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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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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