Marsabit National Park - Off the beaten the track The northern frontier

Marsabit National Park is a remote montane paradise located in Kenya’s desert northern frontier,  the park skirts the massive extinct volcano known as Mount Marsabit. Its name loosely translated means ‘Place of Cold‘.

Marsabit Mountain is a natural phenomenon, born out of volcanic fire and shaped by mist. The mountain’s great mass has created its own ambient ecosystem. Rising like a mirage above the surrounding burning desert, Marsabit is a cool, green, forested realm often swathed in mist.

Every evening at around midnight, the hot air rising from the desert floor cools and forms clinging fingers of mist which grasp the mountain rarely releasing their grip until the late part of the morning.
The reserve has three spectacular crater lakes that provide habitat for a variety of birdlife.

the forests watered by the mist, sustain elephant which are famous for their giant tusks. The park is also known for its herds of greater Kudu. With its beautiful crater lakes rimmed by jungle, the mountain is a haven for a big part of the wildlife and a wide selection of species are found such as lions, leopard, buffaloes, rhino and the massive forest elephants of Marsabit. Therefore you should always be accompanied of an armed ranger when walking in the park.

things to see and hear about

Marsabit reserve is well known because of large elephants like the famous Ahmed, an elephant that was provided with a 24 hour protection by a presidential order. Ahmed, who boasted some of the biggest tusks ever recorded, died at age 55, and his body was preserved and is now on display in Nairobi National Museum. Ahmed lived in Marsabit and had 200-300 kg tusks -long enough to touch the ground. Since poaching has been, and some places still is a serious problem in Kenya, former President Jomo Kenyatta ordered Ahmed to be protected by an armed ranger day and night.

Singing wells of Ulanula
they are owned by the Borana and plunge vertically, some four to 15meters down. Each morning, the well masons work in mud and water to fashion a trough in the quick-drying sun. They then form a human ladder, the lowest one standing chest deep in the water below. They swing buckets of stitched giraffe hide up and down in harmonic rhythm, singing a hymn- like song as they work.

land of Gofs

Mount Marsabit is peppered with extinct volcanic craters, known locally as gofs. Cloaked in aromatic moss-encrusted forests, the craters are lined with stands of juniper and podocarpus. Gof Bongole, on the eastern periphery of the Park is the largest and most dramatic of the craters, having a 10 km rim; Gof Sokorte Dika lies adjacent to Marsabit Lodge.

Lake paradise

The natural amphitheatre of Gof Sokorte Guda, with its 150 m high caldera, shelters the freshwater lake known as Lake Paradise. Sublimely beautiful, the lake is ringed by forests where the trees are laced with delicate filigrees of Spanish moss, and silken-cloaked colobus monkey preen. This scenic lake is famous from early films and writings of Martin Johnson and Vivien de Wattville.

And for Bird lovers

It is a Realm of the raptors

Renowned for its impressive array of rare and little-known birds, this surprising Park boasts 400 recorded species of birds. An ornithologist's paradise, it also excels in the unusual, such as 52 different species of birds of prey, the rarest of which is the lammergeyer (bearded vulture) believed to nest on the sheer cliffs of Gof Bongole.

The high cliffs at the northern end of Lake Paradise make perfect perches and nesting sites for such birds of prey as the Ruppel's griffon vulture, peregrine falcon, mountain and common buzzard, black kite and African fish eagle.

Birdlife
The semi-arid plains surrounding the massif are home to such birds as; Somali ostrich, vulturine guinea fowl, masked and Williams' lark (both endemic to northern Kenya), Somali bee-eater, Heuglin's bustard and cream-coloured courser.

 Water birds include duck (southern pochard, garganey and teal), little grebe and rafts of red-knobbed coot. Hammerkop, ibis, purple heron and saddle-billed and yellow-billed stork feed in the shallow waters of the crater lakes, and darter and cormorant dry their wings on the overhanging branches.
Birds that can be easily spotted on a drive include the emerald-spotted wood dove and tambourine dove, olive pigeon and Hartlaub's turaco, whose crimson wings flash as they feed among the trailing beard moss.

The People

Most noticeable are the Rendille, who are mostly clothed in animal skins and elaborate beadwork and with intricately braided hair. There are also camel grazers like the Samburu and the Maasai, the Rendille show little interest in adopting a more sedentary lifestyle and prefer to roam the desert. Other major ethnic groups include the Boran and the Gabbra, both pastoralists who graze cattle rather than camels. All bring their animals in from the desert to water them in the mountain springs - known as the ‘Singing Wells'.