Safari activities to do at Mount Elgon National Park Kenya
Safari activities to do at Mount Elgon National Park Kenya : Mount Elgon National Park sits claim to one-half of Mount Elgon. The other half is in Uganda. The mountain is the 8th greatest in Africa with a base area that is the largest of any freestanding volcano in the world. Kenya’s and Uganda’s borders split the 316,048-acre park in half. Kenyan territory covering 41,761 acres was gazetted in 1968. In 1992, Uganda’s remaining 274,287 acres were turned into a park. Even while you might not see all five of the Big Five, the vistas from the Kenyan side are nonetheless breathtaking. Make sure you tick these five items off your bucket list when you visit.
- Find out the colorful world of Monkeys.
Mount Elgon National Park is hosts various monkeys which attracts various tourists to the safari destination like the black and white Colobus monkey, the blue monkey, and the forest monkey. But you are also going to see plenty of small antelope as well as catch herds of buffalo, elephants and eland and among many others on the Kenya safari.
- Observe over 300 Bird Species.
Mount Elgon national park is the incredible safari destination with over 300 bird species, including the Lammergeyer, African Goshawk and Baglafecht Weaver. This is where the endangered Maathai’s Longleg dragonfly species named for Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai was found in 2005.
- Explore Kitum Cave.
The largest of the four caverns in Mount Elgon National Park together referred to as Elkony is Kitum Cave. The cave stretches 200 metres horizontally into the centre of Mount Elgon. The name of the cave means “place of the ceremonies” in Maa language. Kitum Cave is one of the elephants’ favored gathering spots, along with Makingeni, Chepnyalil, and Ngwarisha. Long convoys of elephants go deep into the cave there, the only spot in the world where they do so to feed on the deposits rich in salt.
The jumbos come in large numbers to meet this need because the forest’s flora lacks sodium. They are known as the “underground elephants” because of this nocturnal behavior. Kitum has turned into a food pilgrimage, but it has also turned into a cemetery for underground elephants. The elephants stumbling around in the cave’s complete darkness break bones. Occasionally, they become lodged in the cracks and provide food for other creatures. Sometimes they just starve to death while imprisoned in these cracks. This is demonstrated by the increasing heaps of bones inside the cave.
However, the book “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston is ultimately responsible for this cave’s current level of notoriety. Here are two cases of tourists catching the deadly Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever, which is similar to Ebola, according to Richard’s book. A sizable American expedition visited the cave in an attempt to identify the virus’s origin. It took ten years to determine that the numerous bats that reside in the cave were the source.
- Visit the Endebes Bluff.
You may see expansive views of the region’s escarpments, gorges, mesas, and rivers from the Endebes Bluff. It’s also the ideal location for breathtaking photography.
- Scale Koitoboss.
On the Kenyan side of Mount Elgon, Koitoboss is the highest point. 4,155 M (13,852 FT) is how high it soars in the sky. It is a little higher on the Ugandan side, at 4,322 M (14,178 FT) above sea level. You can choose to go northwest into the crater to the Suam Hot Springs after reaching the summit of Koitoboss. An alternative route would be to travel east around the crater rim, arriving at the tiny community of Masara on the mountain’s eastern slopes after around 25 kilometres. This path returns you to Endebess. The southwest path to Lower Elgon Tarn, which encircles the crater rim, is ideal if you plan to camp. The camping area is nice here. The other summit of Mount Elgon, Lower Elgon Peak, is 4,302 metres lower and may be reached using this path, which is an added bonus.
Therefore, Mount Elgon National Park will be exciting even if you are not a huge fan of animals, which is usually the main reason for visiting parks. By car, the attractive town of Eldoret is just 48 KM (30 MI) away.
