Taita Hills Game Sanctuary borders Tsavo West National Park and gives shelter to many animals because there is plenty of water
The Taita Hills is a private game sanctuary separated from the vast Tsavo West National Park by a road. Taita Hills Game Sanctuary consists mainly of plains and woodlands, with typical riverbank vegetation along the water course and is home to over 50 species of mammals and 300 species of birds.
Taita Hills Game Sanctuary region is more remote than the most of the other visited parks and reserves in Kenya , the perfect destination for anyone looking for an opportunity to get away from it all and relax in the wild.
A variety of short excursions can be made from the Sanctuary. Towards the Tanzania border lie Lakes Jipe and Chala, the former, home of many water birds, while Lake Chala is the deepest crater lake in Africa.
The nearby Kaisugu Hills were the battle ground of the German forces and the British Army led by General Smuts in the 1914/18 war, and it is here that the formidable Lord Grogan (famous for his walk from Cape to Cairo for the love of a lady) built his home which is locally known as Grogan’s Castle.
Located 30 km from Mombasa, Shimba Hills National Reserve holds one of the largest coastal forests in East Africa. Shimba Hills National Reserve is home to a very large number of elephant, it is also the only home (in Kenya) for the endangered Sable antelope.
Shimba Hills National Reserve is a small national park situated 56 km south of Mombasa and 15 km inland, in Kenya’s Coast Province. Shimba Hills National Reserve is home to one of the last remaining coastal rainforests on earth and offers a unique blend of wood-cloaked downs, wandering elephant, breeze-fanned hills, plunging waterfalls . In Kenya, Shimba Hills National Reserve is the only habitat of the rare and magnificent sable antelope, this unique Reserve is within thirty minutes of the beach and commands panoramic vistas over the Indian Ocean.
Shimba Hills National Reserve’s Landscape is made up of coastal rainforest, woodland and grassland, this makes the reserve a stronghold of plant biodiversity. More than half of Kenya’s 159 species of rare plants are found in the Shimba Hills, including some endangered species of cycad and orchid.
Shimba Hills National Reserve can be visited in a day trip from Mombasa
Lake Baringo is a fresh water lake found in Rift Valley, 200km north of Naivasha. The lake is home to a huge mix of marine life and bird species.
Lake Baringo is the traditional home of the Njemps tribe, a unique people who are the only pastoral, cattle herding, tribe who also fish. Among other pastoral tribes such as the Maasai, eating fish is a taboo.
Lake Baringo offers an extraordinary variety of bird life (400 species recorded) and is known as the bird watching safari destination. Different species have been spotted on Lake Baringo. Flamingoes with a lighter shade of pink inhabit the lake along with the rare Greater Kudu.
The lake is also home to crocodiles and hippos. For viewing purposes, there exist boat trips that are efficient for going to the islands.
Lake Bogoria National Reserve lies about 220 km from Nairobi. The lake features jets of stream and boiling water shooting in the air. Thousands of both greater and lesser flamingoes migrate to Lake Bogoria which is a shallow soda lake when the water level in Lake Nakuru changes to extreme low or high. The greater kudu is best spotted here living on the Western shores of the lake.
The most dramatic yet the least-visited of the Great Rift Valley lakes, Lake Bogoria is a spectacular sight, reflecting searing blue skies and the rose pink of flamingo. It has significant ornithological interest with 135 species of birds recorded. Like Lake Nakuru, the alkaline waters of Lake Bogoria grow blue-green algae which seasonally attract thousands of flamingoes
On the western shores of Lake Bogoria you find hot geysers bubbling, to the east is the forbidding walls of the towering Siracha Escarpment, and to the south by gentle groves of fig trees and golden-green acacias, in whose shade linger Lake Bogoria’s herd of the rare Greater Kudu, buffalo, zebra, cheetah, baboon, warthog, caracal, spotted hyena, impala, dik dik and many small mammals.
Bogoria has around 200 hot springs in total but the largest and most spectacular collection erupts along the lakeside at Loburu, some 9 km from Loboi Gate.
The Masai Mara is the most popular game reserve in Kenya, and borders the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. The landscaped is mostly open Savannah grasslands and acacia shrub land. Big cats occur in plenty in the Masai Mara reserve, the reserve also hosts the annual wildebeests and zebra migration involving over 1.5 million animals. The migration begins between July and October.
Covering an area of 1,510 sq km and located 270 km away from Nairobi – 270 km away, the Masai Mara National Reserve was named for the Maasai people who inhabit the area, and for the Mara River, which flows through this great reserve. It shares a border with Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park and is essentially a continuation of this park, forming the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.
The Masai Mara reserve is Kenya’s most popular Game Reserve as it hosts an amazing concentration of wildlife. You are almost guaranteed to see the Big 5 – Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Rhino and Elephant. Lions abound throughout the park as do leopards, cheetah, hyenas, giraffe, impala, wildebeest, topi, baboons, warthogs, buffalo, zebra, elephants, and of course hippos and crocodiles in the Mara River.
The Masai Mara is home to an excellent year-round concentration of game and is renowned for its annual visit by the two million wildebeest Zebra and antelopes that make up the Great Wildebeest Migration Migration which happens between the months of July and October.
