The Rough Guide to Kenya - Softcover

The coast and major game parks are the most obvious targets, and if you come to Kenya on an inclusive tour you’re likely to have your time divided between these two attractions. Despite the impact of human population pressures, Kenya’s wildlife spectacle remains a fascinating and addictive experience and most visitors are enchanted by their safaris. Kenya’s million-odd annual visitors are easily absorbed in such a large country, and there’s nothing to prevent you escaping the predictable tourist bottlenecks: even on an organized tour, you should not feel constrained to follow the prescribed plan.

The vast majority of the population live in the rugged highland areas in the southwest quarter of the country, where the ridges are a mix of shamba smallholdings and plantations. Running through the heart of these highlands sprawls the Great Rift Valley, an archetypal East African scene of dry, thorn tree savannah, splashed with lakes and studded by volcanoes. It’s great walking country, as are the high forests and moors of the Central Highlands and Mount Kenya itself – a major target and a feasible climb for most people. Nairobi, the capital, on the highlands’ southern edge, is generally used only as a gateway to Kenya, but has plenty of diversions to occupy your time while arranging an onward trip. The national parks and reserves, watered by seasonal streams, are mostly located in savannah country on the highland fringes.

Further west, towards Lake Victoria, lies gentler countryside, where you can travel for days without seeing another foreign visitor and get perhaps the best immersion in Kenyan life and culture. Beyond the rolling tea plantations of Kericho and the hot plains around the port of Kisumu lies the steep volcanic massif of Mount Elgon, astride the Ugandan border. The little-known Kakamega Forest rainforest reserve, with its unique wildlife, is here too, and more than enough reason to strike out west.

In the north, the land is desert or semi-desert, broken only by the highlight of Lake Turkana in the northwest, almost unnaturally blue and gigantic in the wilderness. Although northeast Kenya, towards the Somalian border, is currently unsafe for travellers, the routes up to Turkana are still open, and you can even get there by public transport. For serious adventure, it is one of the most spectacular and memorable of all African regions.

Separating Kenya’s interior – or "up-country" – from the Indian Ocean, the arid Maungu Plains form a barrier which accounts in large part for the separate history and culture of the coast. Here, a distinct Islamic Swahili civilization exists with a long historical record in its mosques and tombs and the ruins of several ancient towns cut from the jungle, while along the length of the coast, beyond the white sandy beaches – invariably shaded by coconut palms or casuarina trees – runs an almost continuous coral reef, protecting a shallow, safe lagoon from the Indian Ocean.

WHEN TO GO

Kenya has complicated and rather unpredictable climatic shifts. Broadly, the pattern is that January to March is hot and dry, while from April to June it is hot and wet, a period known as the "long rains". From July until October the weather is very warm and dry, and then come the "short rains", making November and December warm and wet. At high altitudes, however, it may rain at almost any time. Western Kenya has a scattered rainfall pattern influenced by Lake Victoria, while the eastern half of the country, and especially the coast itself, are largely controlled by the Indian Ocean’s monsoon winds – the dry northeast monsoon (kaskazi) blowing from December to March and the moist southeast monsoon (kusi) from April to November, which normally brings the heaviest rain in May. Temperatures are determined largely by altitude: you can reckon on a drop of 6°C (or 11°F) for every 1000m you climb from sea level. Nairobi, for example, (at 1600m, higher than the Cairngorms or the Appalachians) has a moderate climate, and can get down to 5°C (41°F) at night.

The main tourist seasons tie in with the rainfall patterns: the biggest influxes are in December and January and, to a lesser extent, July and August. Dry-season travel has a number of advantages, not least of which is the greater visibility of wildlife as animals are concentrated along the diminishing watercourses. July and August are probably the best months, overall, for game-viewing. October to January are the months with the clearest seas for snorkelling and diving – especially November. In the "long rains", the mountain parks are sometimes closed, as the muddy tracks are undrivable. But the rainy seasons shouldn’t deter travel unduly: the rains usually come only in short afternoon or evening cloudbursts, and the landscape is strikingly green and fresh even if the skies may be cloudy. There are bonuses, too, in the lack of tourists: hotel and other prices are reduced and people generally have more time for you.