Safari Destinations Kenya Kenya Description
Kenya Description
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The Republic of Kenya covers an area of 582,644 square kilometres and shares a common border with Ethiopia to the north, Sudan to the north west, Uganda to the west,Tanzania to the South , and Somalia to the East. The country sits astride the Equator and is bisected from north to South by the Great Rift Valley, a natural phenomenon that runs through most of the length of Africa . Kenya is a land of great physical contrasts divided into roughly five ecological zones. To the north and north east, the country ranges from semi arid to desert. About two thirds of the country is in this zone, whose most important feature is Lake Turkana on whose shores at Koobi Kora.Archeological excavations have unearthed man’s earliest ancestors leading to Kenya’s claim as the “Cradle of Mankind”. Lake Turkana is also reputed to contain the highest concentration of crocodiles- over ten thousand in a single habitat. Close to Turkana are the National Parks of Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba. It was at Shaba that the Joy and George Adamson’s famous rehabilitation work with lions was done and where the award winning movie “Born Free” was filmed. Together with Meru National Park, the above form part of Kenya’s Northern Tourist Circuit. Kenya’s Coastal belt stretches nearly five hundred kilometres from the Tanzania border to the south, to Kiwayu on the Somali boarder to the north. All along this coastal stretch are located Kenya’s famous beach resorts including Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city, which is not only a world renown tourist resort but also a thriving port city serving as a sea outlet to its landlocked neighbours in Central Africa. Other equally famous coastal resort areas are Shimoni, Diani and Tiwi on the South Coast and Watamu, Malindi, and Lamu on the north Coast to mention a few. A third geographical cum tourist zone covers the Central Highlands in which lies the Aberdares National Reserve and Mt Kenya National Park. Many different species of game are found in these parks as well as a large variety of fascinating plants. In this park, sitting astride the equator, is found the snow covered Mt Kenya, the second highest mountain in Africa, after Mt Kilimanjaro. At The park is also famous for the Tree Lodges, among them Treetops, the first tree hotel in the whole of Africa, which is historically famous as the lodge in which Queen Elizabeth of Britain ascended to the throne while holidaying in Kenya, following the death in 1952, of her father, King George VI. Between the coastal zone and the Central Highlands lie the Nyika Plateau, a large low rainfall area best known as the Savannah, which supports the bulk of Kenya’s wildlife. Finally, there is the Western zone dominated by the fertile agricultural lands west of the Rift Valley which produces the bulk of Kenya food as well as major cashcrops such as Tea produced in the Highlands of Kericho. From these highlands the land slopes steeply down to the lake basin dominated by Lake Victoria, the second largest freshwater lake in the world which forms a natural boundary between Kenya and her neighbours, Uganda to the west, and Tanzania to the south and south west. |
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