travel – Page 25 – Moonlion Safaris

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

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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Tuskers at Thomson’s Falls

Published on April 1, 2017April 1, 2017 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 1st April 2017

Above: The gorge with Ewaso Nyiro river flowing from the wetland at Nyahururu via Thomson’s Falls to Lorian swamp in the arid lands – copyright Rupi Mangat

Thomson’s Falls in Nyahururu reveals more in its ravine flowing in the depths of South Marmanet Forest

DSC06811 (800x600) — Elephants deep in the gorge – need a zoom lens to capture them – copyright Rupi Mangat

“The elephants have been spotted,” announces Walter Muriithi of Panari Resort Nyahururu sandwiched between the rocky gorge of Thomson’s Falls and South Marmanet Forest. We rush out to drive the few kilometres around the forest bordered by local farms and stop at the electric fence. It’s a deterrent to keep the elephants from raiding the farms.

Fence at Marmanet forest and the farms to keep elephants from straying out – copyright Rupi Mangat

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Wandering on the island of Wasini

Published on March 25, 2017January 1, 2024 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

Above: Coral garden at low tide on Wasini – copyright Rupi Mangat

Published Saturday magazine Nation newspaper 25 March 2017

Century-old oral rag house of the Arabs – copyright Rupi Mangat

Graves of the ancestors by the century-old oral rag house of the Arabs – copyright Rupi Mangat

Wasini Island from across Shimoni on mainland South Coast near Kenya-Tanzania border – copyright Rupi Mangat

A dug-out canoe sails to the dhow anchored in Wasini Channel to paddle me to the shores of the island. In a few minutes we’re on the ancient island of fossilized coral. Wasini once a little village of makuti-thatched coral rag single-storey houses now has a few multi-floored brick buildings coming up. The century-old, ‘Arab’ houses are beginning to crumble and replaced with modern brick.

Kaole Restaurant – copyright Rupi Mangat

Cassava in coconut milk – copyright Rupi Mangat

-Husni the waiter with a plater of crabs – copyright Rupi Mangat

Our first port of call is to the island restaurant Kaole. Plate after plate of mouth-watering Swahili dishes waft out of the deceptively simple kitchen of the restaurant on coral rag floor and four walls with open frontage to the channel. We’re fed on crab delivered on wooden platters which Husni the waiter knocks the shell open to show diners how to tease the meat out. The table fills with spiced seaweed with chapatti, ‘wali’ and cassava cooked in coconut milk and more. We eat to our fill with the ocean breeze cooling the afternoon temperatures.