Marsabit National Park
Overview
Kenya Parks
Philip is a renowned Africa expert and author of many guidebooks to African destinations, including the DK Eyewitness Guide to Kenya.
Marsabit National Park lies in northern Kenya, an arid part of the country that tends to appeal mainly to adventurous travelers. It protects Mt Marsabit, a massive extinct volcano whose densely forested slopes stand in lush contrast to the thirsty scrubland that surrounds it. Bordered by Marsabit town, the park contains two gorgeous forest-fringed crater lakes that frequently attract elephant and buffalo herds.
Pros & Cons
Wildlife
The dense forest and limited road circuit makes for challenging wildlife viewing. Elephants and buffalo are quite often seen around the crater lakes. Other forest-dwelling wildlife includes olive baboon, bushbuck, greater kudu and a few secretive leopards. Lion, cheetah, reticulated giraffe and Grevy’s zebra are resident on (or occasional visitors to) the more arid southern footslopes, along with various dry-country antelope.
Scenery
Densely forested Mt Marsabit is a fine example of a basaltic shield volcano. The slopes are peppered with extinct volcanic craters, known as gofs (the name used by the local Borana people). These include forested Gof Sokorte Dika and Gof Sokorte Guda (also known as Lake Paradise), both of which enclose near-permanent crater lakes. Much larger than either of these is Gof Bongole, which stands on the dryer southern footslopes and also sometimes hosts a crater lake.
Activities
Game drives are most productive in the late afternoon, when elephant and buffalo most often drink at Gof Sokorte Dika and Guda. For the intrepid, a rough 4x4 road leads south from Gof Sokorte Guda to the arid country around Gof Bongole. Unguided walking is forbidden but armed rangers may be available to lead a guided walk around one or both lakes. A small cultural museum stands at the main park entrance.
Weather & Climate
The park’s mountainous nature means there’s a lot of variation in altitude. Temperatures tend to be cooler as you go higher up the slopes. Generally, though, it stays hot by day, certainly in the Dry season (June to September), but even more so in the heart of the Wet season (October to May). Nights are more comfortably cool.
Best Time To Visit
To see animals out in the open, visit in the drier months when wildlife is most likely to visit the crater lakes: June to September, and again in January and February, are the best months for wildlife viewing. Animals roam more widely (and often beyond the park) when the park is wet, and those that stay can easily disappear into the dense vegetation. So, the wetter seasons (October to December and March to May) are not the best times to visit, unless birds are your priority.
