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Country Info
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Mount Elgon
Kakamega town has a good market for stocking up on supplies if
you are heading further inland.
Today we travel even further west to the Mt. Elgon region. From
Kakamega it takes about 2 hours to pass through Webuye with its
paper mills and into Kitale town, a town that strikes me as being
very neat and tidy yet with all necessary amenities including banks.
From Kitale it takes another 30 minutes on a murram road to get
to the Mt. Elgon Lodge. Formerly known as Chorlim House, this lodge
once belonged to the Powles from the 1920s to 1969. It is the only
lodge in the Mt. Elgon area.
Not far from the lodge is the Mt. Elgon National Park. It is
sometimes referred to as the ‘loneliest park in Kenya',
because it does not receive many tourists due to its distance from
most towns. It still has large areas of untouched forest harbouring
primates like the beautiful Colobus monkeys with their unique black
and white furry coats. Other animals present include the Defassa
waterbuck that act as the compounds lawn mower- keeping the grass
short and neat as they peacefully graze around the Kenya wildlife
Service offices. And then there are the shy bushbucks.
The park is also famous for its elephant caves which are actually
lava tubes through which magma flowed during the volcanic formation
of Mount Elgon about 15 million years ago.
Exploring the Mt. Elgon caves
The air inside is cold and thick with the smell of bat droppings,
compounded by the smell from a pool to the side of the cave in which
bigger animals pass their waste at night.
To get a good view of the whole park drive up to the Elephant
platform viewpoint. From here we see the canopy of forest and
neighboring farms on which live the Kenyan Sabaot community and the
Sebeis community which we are told migrated from Uganda as recently
as 10 years ago! And beyond the hills peeps one of Mt. Elgon's peaks
called Koitobos. It is thought that at one time Mt. Elgon was higher
than Mt. Kilimanjaro but earth movements caused its peak to cave in,
leaving it as the second highest mountain in Kenya.
Accommodation
The park has clearly marked signs to guide you on your way, both
when walking or horseriding. Of increasing popularity are its bandas
which are amazingly affordable and self catering. Security is
ample.
Accommodation rates
and images
Related links:-
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The Western Circuit:-
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