Saiwa Swamp National Park

A short wetland nature walk with the possibility of seeing an unusual antelope

Kenya’s smallest national park, this is best-known as a refuge for the rare semi-aquatic sitatunga antelope, which unusually has splayed hooves, allowing it to walk on the swamp vegetation. We didn’t this display of bravery, but we did see a couple gracefully sliding through the water with their heads raised and nostrils flaring. Additionally, black-and-white colobus monkeys were fairly common in the wild fig trees, and several varieties of kingfisher fluttered around the bulrushes. The short walk through this tiny park (less than three square kilometres) was easy along raised boardwalks, but it’s out of the way to get to there and the sitatunga remains elusive most of the time as it rests semi-submerged and is very well hidden during the heat of the day. Its best described as a nature walk to enjoy the birds and butterflies.