Probably the least
known but the most unspoilt, the circuit stretches from the green (tea)
country, Kericho, to South West Islands of Rusinga and up north Kakamega
Forest.
The tea country is
densely populated and widely cultivated featuring small shambas to tea
plantations. Kericho is the tea
capital, with vast tea plantations visible from the main roads. To the west is Lake Victoria, the world’s largest
fresh water lake after Canada’s Lake Superior. On its shores lie Kisumu City, the regional capital and
Kenya’s third largest town.
In Lake Victoria are Rusinga Islands, the place Mary Leakey
discovered the skul of Proconsul
Africanus, a primitive anthropoid ape that lived on Rusinga three million
years ago, and Mfangano, a center of
pre-history famous for its rock art.
Up North, is the famous
Kakamega Forest Reserve, a lowland
forest renowned for its abundant wildlife. On the Ugandan border to the west
lies the rugged wilderness of Mt.Elgon
National Park, famous for its bat-filled caves and salt-mining elephants.
Some 27km north of
Kitale-Lodwar road from Kitale town lies Saiwa
Swamp, unique and of its kind in that, accessibility to the park is only by
foot. The park is traversed by some 18km of walking trails and timbered
walkways. It has four timbered observation towers, climbed to get an Ariel view
of the swamp and its inhabitants. Saiwa Swamp remains the only place in Kenya
the endangered Sitatunga antelope relatively habituates to the proximity of
humans.
The Sitatunga (Tragelaphus Spekei)
is named after John Hanning Speke, who discovered the source of the Nile at
Lake Victoria in 1858. Other wildlife there includes the rare de Braza’s
monkey, otter, genet cat, serval cat, mongoose, bushbuck, ratel and 372 bird
species such as the blue-headed coucal.
