THE HIDDEN TREASURES OF LAKE BARINGO

Lake  Baringo

The Undisclosed treasure

Lake Baringo is in the northwest of the capital city of Kenya Nairobi. This 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. This is one of the fresh water lakes on the floor of the Rift Valley the Earth great scar. 

The lake remains the peaceful oasis in the dry-horny country rich in birdlife and a captivating character entirely of its own. The lake is named after the local name Mparingo meaning the lake. The waters are highly salted with the red topsoil of the region, and they run though range of colours every day from yellow to coral to purple according to the suns position and the states of the sky.

 

The lake has a number of activities that includes: -

Boat trips
Camel trekking
Bird watching
Water- skiing
Nature walks

The wildlife includes: -

Hippo
Crocodiles
Lizards
Snakes
Fish Eagle
Marabou Stork
Verreaxux’sEagle Owl
Sunbirds
Mousebird
Go -away Birds
Kingfisher
Goliath Heron
Tortoise
Python
Egyptian Goose
Ostrich

The lake is the bird watcher paradise, with 470 species have recorded in total and 280 species being recorded in 6hrs and it was outside the northern or southern migrants. The lake ha a number of islands which includes Ol Kokwe island, Samatian island and Parmalok island.

 

 The altitude here is 3500-ft. Lake Baringo is roughly 22km long by 11km wide at its widest point and covers 168sq Kilometers. It lies in a vast bowl flanked by Rocky Mountains and spectacular escarpments that rise 30 km away to east and west, reaching over 1500m above the valley floor.The average temperature in this dry semi – arid land is 35 degrees Centigrade. The average rainfall is only 640 mm with most of the rain falling in May to August with some in November.

 

Accommodation rages from the world class hotels to the budget camps. This includes-

Bahari hotel lodge

Hippo Lodge Lake

Baringo club

Soi safari lodge

Samatia Island

Weavers lodge

Island camp

Robert's camp

Tourism in the area has increased over the past years; hence Baringo is no longer a place off the beaten track. Still, at the lake's shores you can enjoy a peaceful mood very different from the most crowded parks. Its chocolate waters, stained with the region's soil, change in tonality along the day and depending on the sky's colour. After the sunset, the visitor can watch the hippos emerging from the water to graze in noisy groups at the moonlit pastures. hope you grab this chance and know it yourself, the treasure at hand.

C R- Fredrick Kihara 2007