travel – Page 24 – Moonlion Safaris

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

Published on April 29, 2017January 1, 2024 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

In search of a palanquin

Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 29 April 2017

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

Published on April 27, 2017January 1, 2024 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

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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Musing at Grogan’s Castle

Published on April 15, 2017 by Rupi Mangat1 Comment

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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Guereza colobus or mantled colobus - monkeys of the old forest. They rarely come down to earth and feed mostly on leaves. Picture courtesy: Kat Combes,Soysambu Conservancy

Fundraising for Pre-translocation ecological assessment of Mount Kenya Guereza and the habitats of Soysambu Conservancy, Kenya

Published on April 8, 2017January 1, 2024 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

April 8, 2017

This April 8, 2017 Pre-translocation ecological assessment of Mount Kenya Guereza and the habitats of Soysambu Conservancy. resulted in an accelerated human-guereza conflict as the groups crop raid to supplement the meager wild food.

To save this population, 142 individuals were successfully translocated to Karura forest in 2016 and over 200 individuals still remain in the fragmented private riverine habitats of Kipipiri. Urgent translocation efforts are therefore, required to safe these groups from being exterminated in the near future. Such an effort however, requires identification of a suitable habitat with enough food, cover, security and away from human habitation and especially the agricultural community to minimize human-colobus conflicts in the sink habitat.

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Tour of Ikutha and Mutomo Plant Sanctuary

Published on April 8, 2017January 1, 2024 by Rupi Mangat1 Comment

Published Saturday magazine, Nation media 8 April 2017

A hill and church with history in Kitui

Main pictures: Africa Inland Church established 1895-1914 in Ikutha overlooking Yatta plains -copyright Rupi Mangat

Africa Inland Church in Ikutha founded 1895-1914 by Johannes Hofmann - a historical site Copyright Rupi Mangat — Africa Inland Church in Ikutha founded 1895-1914 by Johannes Hofmann – a historical site Copyright Rupi Mangat

Kitui’s first step to fame is that it was somewhere in the now-mapped county that Johann Krapf became the first European to sight Mount Kenya’s snowy peaks from the village of the strongman – Chief Kivoi in 1849 – and the outside world came to know of the mountain on the Equator. It’s also from the Kikamba lingo that the country’s name is derived from – when Krapf asked the locals what the mountain was called, they replied Kinyaa – the mountain of the ostriches because of its snowy white peaks against the black granite.

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