Known for
its well-developed tourism infrastructure, Kenya is often avoided by the
cognoscenti, who claim that the “real Africa” now lies elsewhere. But
do they know what they’re missing? Philip Briggs thinks not, and has no
trouble rounding up ten top notch destinations that remain untouched by
mainstream tourism.
Kenya, people will tell you, is too touristy. Backpackers whose experience of
the country is limited to a bus ride from Nairobi to one or other border will
inform you that they dashed through because Kenya is, y’know, too
touristy. In game lodges from the Serengeti south to the Okavango you’ll
meet upmarket safari-goers who have never been to Kenya and say they never will
because it’s, well, far too touristy.
The thing is
— and I say this in the spirit of genuine bemusement rather than wilful
contrariness — that after spending a total of nine months travelling in
Kenya between 1986 and 2000, I have not the faintest idea what the “too
touristy” brigade are on about. Fair enough, if you book a week-long
charter package at a hotel on Diani or Nyali Beach (the main tourist drags on
Kenya’s 500-odd km coastline), you’ll be exposed to the sort of
overcrowding you might encounter on the Costa del Sol in midwinter.
In my
experience, Kenya is a country as fascinating as any in Africa. Its most
prominent attractions do receive a fair amount of tourist traffic, but no more
so than would any other reasonably stable country with a half-decent tourist
infrastructure. But because it is so geographically and culturally varied,
Kenya also boasts a remarkable array of worthwhile sites that are accessible,
affordable — and utterly off any beaten tourist track. Kenya, without
doubt, can offer a travel experience as adventurous and un-touristy as you want
it to be.
Here are exhibits one to ten for the defence:
Chalbi Desert & Turkana
Turn left at Marsabit, keep driving until there are no trees
within sight, and you’re in the Chalbi Desert, a vast flat nothingness
which is occasionally transformed into a shallow seasonal lake. This land of
endless mirages and salt flats somewhat bizarrely drops at its western rim to
the base of the Rift Valley and the infinitely mysterious Lake Turkana, the
world’s largest desert lake. Turkana is not only visually compelling
— deep green waters hemmed in by an apocalyptic moonscape of extinct
volcanoes and naked flows — but its hinterland also provides home to an
eclectic mix of staunch traditionalists — the Turkana, Gabbra, Samburu and
El Molo peoples. More perhaps than anywhere in modern Africa, visiting Turkana
feels like leaving the 21st century behind.
Kakamega Forest
To anybody whose
interest in wildlife extends beyond the plains game, this vast western forest
close to the town of Kakamega (pictured previous pages) is unconditionally
recommended. In addition to offering great primate viewing (abundant
black-and-white Colobus and, with a spotlight, a good chance of picking out the
nocturnal sloth-like Potto), this is arguably Kenya’s most alluring
destination for butterfly and bird enthusiasts, with some 320 bird species, 30
of which occur at the eastern extent of their range. Despite its atmospheric
(and inexpensive) accommodation, and ease of access, Kakamega remains almost
wholly neglected by the tourist industry and independent travellers alike.
Shimba Hills
You’ve just booked that Diani beach package? Don’t panic, because
less than an hour’s drive away lies one of the country’s least
visited and most scenic game reserves, Shimba Hills. True, predator sightings
at Shimba aren’t comparable with those at the Masai Mara, but large herds
of tuskers still roam the lush green hills, while mud-stained buffalo and sable
antelope (the latter wiped out elsewhere in Kenya) can be taken for granted. A
tantalising list of coastal forest birds is headed by the sought-after
Green-headed oriole. For those who want to do it in luxury, a superb
Treetops-style lodge — ringed by coastal forest, reverberating with bird
calls — provides a playground for red coastal squirrels by day and
bushbabies by night. Or you can camp in a forest glade, sipping a sundowner as
you gloat in the direction of the distant outline of coastal Diani.
Marsabit Mountain
The upper slopes of this isolated forested massif, surrounded on all sides by
the arid badlands characteristic of northern Kenya, are protected in a national
park studded with crater lakes. Further afield, the area is scattered with
“singing wells”, named for the local Borena custom of singing while
several dozen of them form a queue by the steep walls to pass along buckets of
water one by one. Miles from any beaten tourist track, Marsabit is serviced by
what must be the country’s quietest game lodge, with a fine location above
a forest-fringed crater lake teeming with birds and visited daily by
elephants
Gedi Ruins and Sokoke
Forest
North of Mombasa, within walking distance of
Watamu’s immaculate beach, the jungle-clad Gedi Ruins consist of the
extensive remnants of one of the many medieval Swahili city-states which once
studded the East African coast. The stuff of Lost City fantasies, Gedi is
overhung with an aura of mystery that is amplified when you realise its
existence went unrecorded in any contemporary document. An added attraction of
Gedi is the opportunity to glimpse the localised golden-rumped Elephant shrew
bouncing daftly along the forest paths, while the adjacent Sokoke forest
provides sanctuary to the rare Ader’s duiker and endemic Clarke’s
weaver and Sokoke scops owl.
Lake
Victoria
Africa’s largest body of water, Lake
Victoria, is divided between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, with only the Ugandan
portion receiving much in the way of tourism. The main Kenyan port, Kisumu, is
a sizeable, friendly city and useful base for ferry trips to places such as
Kendu Bay (crater lake with resident flamingos), Rusinga Island (birthplace and
mausoleum of the assassinated politician Tom Mboya) and, pictured, Homa Bay
(travel for its own sake, but why not?). With a vehicle, the remote Ruma
National Park, home to unusual species such as Rothschild’s giraffe and
Kenya’s only Roan antelope, beckons. So, too, does the Thimlich Ohinga
enclosure, a ruined medieval city reminiscent of Great Zimbabwe. For anglers,
birders and misanthropists, the highly regarded and utterly exclusive Mfangano
Island Camp on the eponymous island is the region’s one upmarket retreat.
Olorgasailie
Two hours’ south of Nairobi along a decent surfaced road,
yet epochs away in mood, Olorgasailie is one of East Africa’s most
important early hominid archaeological sites, originally excavated by the
legendary Louis and Mary Leakey. It also offers some unexpectedly good
incidental game-viewing (gerenuk, giraffe, eland, baboon). Informal contacts
with the local Maasai provide the perfect antidote to the Maasai “tourist
villages” so beloved of safari packages, while the harshly beautiful
southern Rift Valley scenery leaves an indelible impression. Accommodation is
appropriately rustic and cheap (bring a sleeping bag), with hyaenas and lions
providing a lively nocturnal soundtrack.
Siawa Swamp National Park
Kenya’s
smallest national park forms an obvious extension to a trip to Kakamega.
Consisting of an area of swamp overlooked by wooden viewing platforms and
enclosed by riparian forest, this is one of the best places in Africa to see
the semi-aquatic Sitatunga antelope and white-bearded De Brazza’s monkey,
along with several other primates. Top birding, too (look out for the bright
purple Ross’s turaco) and a secluded camp site you’re almost certain
to have all to yourself.
Kericho
Characteristic small-town
Kenya, the emphatically un-touristy centre of Kericho lies at the economic
heart of the country’s tea-growing region. Kericho is of interest more as
a gateway to the west than as a destination in its own right, though the drive
up from the Rift Valley is scintillating, and the close-by Chagaik Arboretum
(an enclave of tropical jungle surrounded by orderly tea plantations) is a
reliable spot for Colobus monkeys and forest birds. The rickety old Tea Hotel
on the edge of town is an irresistible low-key, low-cost colonial hangover; the
local bars, as in all small towns, are as good a place as any to meet Kenyans
working outside the tourist industry. For curio-hunters, nearby Kisii, famed
for its soapstone carvings, is worth a diversion.
Paté Island
The largest island
in the Lamu archipelago, easily reached by ferry from the absorbing Swahili
town of Lamu, Paté was formerly an important city-state and Islamic
centre. Today it supports some of East Africa’s remotest, least-visited
and most fascinating settlements — none more so than Paté town
itself, a tiny maze of winding alleys and three-storey homes which rises like a
misplaced city centre from the surrounding mangroves, palms and crumbling walls
of the synonymous medieval town. There is no electricity in Paté, no
alcohol, and just one informal guesthouse. Expect to be led by hand to admire
the recently installed public telephone on an hourly basis, and for any
unfamiliar device — camera, binoculars — to attract hordes of merry
children yelling “Telephone, telephone!” The most bizarre and
time-warped settlement in East Africa? Without a doubt. Rather wonderful,
too.
