Siddharth Travels-Top tour operator india, Kenya Tour, Places of Interest

National Parks
Kenya's National Parks and game reserves have long been famous for their variety and wealth of flora and fauna. That they have remained Africa's foremost areas of accessible wilderness is due to a vigorous campaign of preservation and management, mounted since the 1960s with increasing success by the Kenyan government. The government fully recognises that Kenya's future prosperity may depend on maintaining its remarkable natural heritage. One-tenth of all land in Kenya is designated as national parkland. Forty parks and reserves cover all habitats from desert to mountain forest, and there are even two marine parks in the Indian Ocean. Tourist facilities are extremely good. There are many organised safaris, but those with the time and money may choose to hire their own vehicle and camping equipment. Day trips by hot air balloon are becoming a very popular way to view game, especially in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, and it is advisable to book well in advance.

Aberdare National Park
This is a closely wooded mountain range rising to over 400 m, adjacent to Mt. Kenya. It is possible to see elephants, rhinos, rare forest antelopes such as the bongo and dik-dik, leopards, lions and monkeys. However, the dense vegetation and misty alpine climate hides most wildlife from the inexpert observer, the exceptions being giant forest pigs, baboons and buffalo, which often sleep or feed beside the many dirt tracks. Most visitors prefer to watch for animals from the comfort of the park's two lodges. Treetops and the Ark, both built on platforms overlooking clearings which are floodlit at night. On the higher slopes, giant alpine plants sprout from an almost perpetual fog. There are many waterfalls, the greatest being Guru Falls which drops over 300 m.

Amboseli National Park
This is a small park by Kenyan standards, covering just under 400 sq km at the centre of the border with Tanzania, 220 km from Nairobi. The fine view of snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain (63,450 m), brings many visitors.

Lake Turkana (formerly Lake Rudolph)
There are several parks and reserves in the far north of Kenya, gathered around Lake Turkana. This extraordinary lake, running for several hundred kilometres through windswept and largely uninhabited deserts, contains many unique species of fish and marine plants and has recently gained a reputation as a fishing resort. Several lodges have sprung up on the Eastern Shore to cater to this trade and consequently, tourism is expected to increase. Despite a harsh climate, many of Kenya's better-known animals manage to survive here, as do the tiny people of the EI Molo tribe, who fish the eastern waters. There are two large volcanic islands in the lake. The flooded crater of the southernmost island has a resident population of unnaturally large crocodiles. The lake is subject to violent storms, which disturb algae to produce remarkable colour changes in the water.

Maasai Mara National Reserve
This reserve is a slice of Africa as seen by Hollywood, 390 km from Nairobi in the southwest corner of the country. It is a vast rolling plain beneath the Mara escarpment striped black once a year by millions of wildebeeste and zebra migrating north from the Serengeti Plains in neighbouring Tanzania. Continually harried by predators, thick columns of exhausted animals eventually converge at one spot on the Mara River and wait nervously to cross. A panic anywhere within the herd is transmitted flank-to-flank until it reaches those by the river. The inelegant beasts must swim past crocodiles, hippos and flapping vultures to join the sparse but growing herd on the other side. This spectacle is probably best seen from one of three hot air balloons operating from Governor's Camp.

During the migration season (July / August), the reserve's resident lions lounge prominently in the sun, fat and seemingly placid, and apparently indifferent to tourists. Other animals to be seen, at any time of the year, include elephants, cheetahs, baboons, gazelles, giraffes, jackals, hyenas, water buffaloes, ostriches, and several types of antelope. There are 13 tented camps and two lodges (Mara Serena Lodge and Keekorok Lodge) in the reserve. Governor's Camp, with its own airstrip, is the largest and best equipped. A luxury hotel stands on the escarpment just outside the reserve and gives fine views over the plain. Maasai tribes' people live on the reserve's fringes. They are often keen to sell traditional bead necklaces and decorated gourds to tourists, or to pose for tourist cameras in return for a small fee.

Meru National Park
The park is 400 km from Nairobi and features Kenya's only colony of white rhinos. It is one of the more unspoilt parks.

Mt. Kenya National Park
Six hundred sq km of forest and bare rock straddle the equator, all above 1800 m, rising to over 5000 m in the year-round snow fields at the mountain's peak. The ascent is very beautiful and may be climbed without special equipment, but it is advisable to take time so as to avoid altitude sickness. Climbers should be accompanied by a guide. Porters are also available and there are huts to stay in along the way. Plenty of warm clothes are required as well as your own food supplies. The mountain is one of the last haunts of the black leopard and the black and white colobus monkey. Lord Baden Powell is buried nearby in Nyeri.

Samburu National Reserve
An area of semi-desert half-way between Nairobi and Lake Turkana, this provides a rare chance to see the oryx, gerenuk, reticulated giraffe and Grevy's zebra. Ostriches and elephants are easily spotted in this open habitat. There are two lodges, Samburu Lodge and River Lodge, both of which hang out bait to attract leopards for the guests to study while sitting at the bar. The park takes its name from the Samburu people, distantly related to the Maasai.

Lake Baringo
About 290km North of Nairobi, Lake Baringo is the most northerly of the Rift Valley Lakes. It can be reached from Nairobi in a day or you can break the journey by stopping at Lake Nakuru or Lake Naivasha - both worth a visit in their own right. From the other side it can be reached from Samburu. Once you get there there's a couple of hotels, one on an island in the lake, and a camp site to stay at.

The lake is fed by two rivers, El Molo and Ol Arabel and has no obvious outlet, despite this it's is one of only two freshwater lakes (it is in fact slightly saline, but not enought to bother the crocs, hippos or people who swim in it) in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. The climate in the region is generally hot and dry and away from the lake shore the surrounding countryside appears quite barren. However the imposing cliffs house a variety of bird life and are also home to the Rock Hyrax (a small rodent-like mammal). The Hyrax are really rather endearing and quite interesting to watch, but from a birders perspective they are of interest as the favourite food of Vereaux's Eagle, which as a result are sometimes seen soaring over the basalt cliffs near the West shore of the lake. The scrub around the edges of the lake also has some interesting birds -if you can find them. Heuglin's or Three-banded courser is not uncommon and you may also be able to see Lichtenstein's Sand-grouse and the Spotted thick-knee. Your best chance of finding them in the scrub is with a local guide, but beware, a number of the "guides" will promise to show you a phoenix if that's what you're interested in - at a price of course.

More than 470 species have been recorded there in total, and more than 300 have been recorded in a single day. A recent bird census, carried out in two three hour spells on consecutive days recorded just over 280 species in the 6 hours, and that was outside the main periods for northern or southern migrants. While you're unlikely to see all 470+ species in a short visit, there are plenty of birds to be seen even by novice birders. Pale and dark phase Gabar Goshawk, Paradise Flycatcher, African Fish Eagles, Marabou Storks, Shikra and White-faced Scops Owl are amongst the regular sightings, while some the less common birds that can be seen there include Hemprich's Hornbill (along the cliffs), the African Darter and occasionally the African Skimmer.

The Gabar Goshawks are an interesting local fixture. Lake Baringo Club has a pair which have been nesting in the grounds for a few years now. The pair is made up of a pale phase female and a dark phase male, in each of the years they have nested there they have raised 2 chicks, one pale and one dark! The presence of nesting Hamerkops also gives you the opportunity to see some of the other birds which take advantage of the extraordinary constructions that these birds build. Since 1999 this includes a pair of Grey Kestrel that have taken up residence in a Hamerkop nest, an unusual sighting since these birds are only occasionally seen this far east in Kenya.

The lake used to boast a large Goliath Heronry but, although Goliaths are still breeding around the lake, the Heronry has disappeared.


	Lake Nakuru National Park Lake Nakuru, another of the Rift Valley lakes, can be visited on a long day trip or an overnight stopover on safari going north or west. Lake Nakuru is world famous as the feeding grounds of both lesser and greater flamingos which can be distinguished by size and color.

The lesser flamingo has a deep carmine red bill; the greater has a pink one with a black tip. The lesser also has a deeper pink plumage. Both species are present at the lake. Lake Nakuru was crowned a national park in the sixties. It was estimated then that they were at times more than a million flamingos. Ornithologists describe it as "the most fabulous bird spectacle in the world."

Besides that, more than 400 species of birds can be seen in the park. Hippos, reedbuck, waterbuck, black rhino, giraffe, lion, leopard, bushbuck are present too at the Lake Nakuru National Park. Between the lake and the cliffs in the west, large pythons inhabit the dense woodland, and can often be seen crossing the roads or dangling from trees. Accommodation is available at the Sarova Lion Hill Lodge and Lake Nakuru Lodge which are right inside the park.

Tsavo National Park (East & West)
At 21,000 sq km, it is Kenya's largest park by far, but much of it is closed to the public. Despite a drastic fall in the elephant population in the 1970s (caused by over-stocking), there are still many large herds. Much land is open savannah and bush woodland inhabited by buffalo, a few rhinos, lions, antelopes, gazelles, giraffes and zebras. Crocodiles and hippos can be seen at Mzima Springs in the west of the park.