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Our pre-booked taxi picked up Rose and me at 6am from Karibuni Guesthouse in Kitale.
We were at Saiwa Swamp (Kenya's smallest national park) by 7am.
We enjoyed our breakfast and chai in this banda, prepared for us by Ebrahim at the guesthouse. |
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| We crossed the marshy swamp area on this raised boardwalk, keen to see what we came for! |
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I had been here one other time many, many years ago with Collins. However, we failed to see any Sitatunga.
But with Rose, we succeeded! As we walked on the trails, we noticed their quite fresh poo droppings.
Then we spotted their hoof marks, also quite fresh. Aha! Rose spotted a group of them that we thoroughly enjoyed watching! |
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| A couple of beautiful nature shots in the forested areas |
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| In fact, we did keep our voices down to not scare the Sitatunga |
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| This picture is from the internet; sadly I couldn't get a good photo of the ones we saw. |
A veritable haven for nature lovers, the Saiwa Swamp National Park is a forested paradise filled with exotic flowers, trees and birds. It is also the habitat of the rare and endangered semi-aquatic Sitatunga antelope and as a preserve for the rare De Brazza’s monkey. Within this tropical wetlands and mosaic of riverine forest, sedges and acacia woodlands, with fringing dense rushes and grass beds. Bird life is abundant. Water birds include the Lesser Jacana, Grey Heron and the African Black Duck while the forest shelters the Narina Trogons, the Collared and Orange-tufted Sunbird, the Yellow Bishop, Hatlaub’s Marsh Widow Bird and the Noisy Ross’s Turacos which are difficult to miss. [Information from a Kenya Wildlife Service website]
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| We then traveled farther north to visit the Kapenguria Six museum |
The Kapenguria Six – Bildad Kaggia, Kung'u Karumba, Jomo Kenyatta, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, and Achieng' Oneko – were six leading Kenyan nationalists. They were arrested in 1952 by the British colonialists, tried at Kapenguria in 1952–53, and imprisoned thereafter in Northern Kenya. The defendants were all convicted, and sentenced to long terms and permanent restriction.All defendants got seven years each. Kenyatta went on to the presidency of Kenya; Kaggia and Ngei served as ministers; Oneko was detained by Kenyatta between 1969 and 1974, before later serving as MP for Rarieda in Kenya's 7th Parliament; Kung'u Karumba disappeared in 1975, while in Uganda on business; Fred Kubai twice served as MP for Nakuru East – from 1963 to 1974, and from 1983 to 1988 – before his death in June 1996. [Information from Wikipedia]
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| We also enjoyed the other exhibits on the grounds, highlighting some of the local cultures. |
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