A Guide to Kenya and Northern Tanzania PDF
Preview A Guide to Kenya and Northern Tanzania
ABOUT THE BOOK This is no ordinary guide. For both the traveller and the resident it provides not only an encyclopaedia of information and advice but also a deep understand ing of the area. The region's most fam ous feature is its wildlife and within the pages of this volume will be found a comprehensive description of all the animals, birds, reptiles and indeed even flowers that are likely to be seen. The different peoples of the region are described, their histories and traditions explained. The magnificent scenery of volcanoes and plains, deserts, lakes and beaches is not just fully described and recorded but is placed in the context of the primeval eruptions which shaped the present face of Africa. And finally the clues from prehistory that have led anthropologists to conclude that East Africa was indeed the cradle of man are explained in clear and lucid terms: the reader who visits the numerous ex cavation sites and museums will be able to appreciate more fully the significance of the human remains that have been recovered and that date back two million. years. This guide will help both local people and visitors to a real appreciation of all there is to see and do. Both as an aid to planning a journey in advance and as a companion on the route it is unique. Price £3.25 A GUIDE TO KENYA AND NORTHERN TANZANIA A GUIDE TO KENYA AND NORTHERN TANZANIA DAVID F. HORROBIN Professor of Medical Physiology Universiry of Nairobi Kenya Photographs by D. F. andF. W. Horrobin MTP Published in the UK by MTP MEDICAL AND TECHNICAL PUBLISHING LTD. Chiltern House, Oxford Road Aylesbury, Bucks © Copyright 1971 D. F. Horrobin Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1971 ISBN-13: 978-94-011-7131-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-011-7129-8 001: 10.1007/978-94-011-7129-8 Contents Introduction page xi 1 The Land and its Climate 1 2 The Development of Man IO 3 Men and Migrations 16 4 The Modern Peoples 27 5 A Brief History 46 6 The Protection of Wild Life 63 7 National Parks and Reserves of Kenya 67 8 National Parks and Reserves in Northern Tanzania 90 9 Nairobi and Kenya East of the Rift 110 10 Nakuru 134 lIThe Kenya Coast 139 12 The Thornbush Country 164 13 Kenya West of the Rift 167 14 The Northern Desert 172 15 Northern Tanzania 178 16 The Common Animals 183 17 Snakes and Other Reptiles 204 18 Bird Life and Where to Find It 211 19 Insects and their Allies 222 20 Flowers and Trees 228 21 Sport 231 22 The Economy 242 23 Communications 246 24 Health for the Visitor 251 25 Useful Information 257 Index 287 List of Maps and Diagrams The structures of the Rift Valley in Kenya and in the Lake Manyara region. 3 The average monthly rainfalls in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kajiado. 5 The average monthly minimum and maximum temperatures in Mombasa, Nairobi and Magadi. 7 A schematic map of Kenya and Northern Tanzania showing the main geograph- ical features, towns and roads. Facing page 12 The skulls of Zinjanthropus and modem man compared. 12 Map showing the various racial influences which impinged upon East Africa. 23 Map showing Kenya immediately north of Mount Kenya. 71 Map of Nairobi National Park. 80 Map showing Arusha National Park and the Amboseli Game Reserve. 94 Map of Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Lake Natron and Lake Manyara. 99 Map of the Mara Game Reserve and the Serengeti. 107 Street map of central Nairobi. 115 Map showing the environs of Nairobi. 122 Map of central Kenya. 136 Map showing Tsavo and the Kenya Coast. 145 Street map of part of Mombasa Island. 151 Map of part of Western Kenya. 169 Diagram showing the jaws of an alligator and a crocodile. 205 Diagram showing the jaws of a harmless snake compared to three types of poisonous ones. 208 Illustration of a queen termite. 225 Introduction East Mrica is rapidly becoming one of the most popular areas in the world among the increasing numbers of travellers who are prepared to venture outside their own continent. To those of us fortunate enough to live here, the reasons for this popularity are quite apparent. Much of the region enjoys an equable climate all the year round with no extremes of either heat or cold and with plenty of sunshine. Scenically the area is one of the most beautiful on earth with a marvellous variety of landscape. The beaches are vast and clean and unspoilt. But the outstanding attractions of East Africa, for most people, are its fascinating peoples and the unparalleled abundance of its wild life. This guide is the first of three planned to cover the whole region of East Mrica. It deals with Kenya and Northern Tanzania. The other guides will deal with Uganda and the rest of Tanzania. Many books have been written about East Africa. They come into four main categories; the magnificent picture books, the geography books, the stories about animals and the detailed technical books on such special aspects as game conservation, bird life, prehistory, or butterflies. None of these is suitable as a practical guide for either the local resident or the average intelligent visitor, who is interested in everything but is not an enthusiastic specialist in any particular subject. This guide attempts to fill that gap. It is full of practical information about climate, health, hotels and travel. It describes briefly the history, geography and peoples of the area. It describes all the places which the local resident or visitor will want to see, some of which are internationally famous and many others of which deserve to be so famed but are at present known only to a few. It describes all the animals which are likely to be seen and gives an introduction to knowledge of other forms of wild-life, such as birds, snakes, insects and flowers. Finally a compre hensive further reading list guides the person with a special interest to those books where he can find the information he requires. For visitors, the guide is meant to be read before the holiday in anticipation, to be carried around during the holiday as a practical handbook and to be treasured afterwards as a constant reminder of a never-to-be-forgotten experience. For residents of Kenya and Tanzania, the guide is meant to increase their appreciation of their own countries and to act as a constant and well-used companion. About the book The guide is in two major sections, the first and larger part being printed on white paper, the second on brown paper. In the first part, the countries, their peoples and their animals are described in full. The second part consists of practical information about travel, about hotels, about books to read and about Swahili phrases. It also contains many useful addresses of people and organisations concerned with tourism, sport, culture, and so on. I believe that all the information in both sections is accurate at the time of going to press but I should be most grateful if those who notice any possible errors could write to me in order that the next edition may be improved. A word about the photographs may not be out of place. They were all taken by my father or by myself who might accurately be described as keen amateurs: neither of us is in any sense of the word a professional photographer. The equipment which we used was good but not fantastically expensive. Most of the photographs were taken with an Asahi Pentax camera with either a 55mm or a 200mm lens. Almost all were taken on Agfacolour film which was processed locally in Nairobi. In short, the pictures in this book are ones which could have been obtained by any reasonably competent amateur. The Land and its Climate Any landscape as seen by the human eye depends on two main things, the underlying structure of rock and soil and the vegetation which clothes them. In turn the types of vegetation depend mainly on the rainfall and temperature. THE STRUCTURE OF THE LAND The fundamental structure of East Mrica is extremely complex in detail but relatively simple to understand in broad outline. About 25 million years ago East Africa seems to have been a vast plain, con sisting of many different types of old rocks weathered down to give a relatively flat surface with numerous minor depressions filled by shallow lakes. But about that time there began an extraordinary series of earth movements which are responsible for most of the outstanding features of the landscape which can be seen today. The most dramatic of these movements was the upthrusting and splitting of the earth's crust along a length of over 4,000 miles to form the Great Rift Valley. The Rift as it is commonly known begins in the Jordan Valley, comes down through the Red Sea, crosses Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania and finally peters out in Southern Mrica. The result of this rifting process was the formation of two sets of highland regions ('The rise to the Rift') separated by a valley varying roughly from twenty to sixty miles across and from a few hundred to several thousand feet deep. Many lesser rift valleys were formed as branches of the Great Rift. In East Africa the most spectacular of these is the Western Rift whose west wall separates East Mrica from the Congo. The Western Rift contains a series of the deepest lakes in the world (up to 4,700 feet deep) 2 A Guide to Kenya and Northern Tanzania which are major suppliers of the waters of the Nile. Between the east wall of the Western Rift and the west wall of the Great Rift lies an immense shallow depression largely filled by Lake Victoria. This is relatively shallow (no more than 270 feet deep) and in area is the second largest body of fresh water in the world, only Lake Superior being bigger. In Kenya, the earth's upward movement was greatest (and the valley is consequently deepest) in the hundred miles or so running north of Nairobi. The floor of most of the Great Rift has no outlet to the sea. The lakes in it tend to be shallow and to have a very high mineral content resulting from the evaporation of water leaving the solid salts behind. Lake Magadi, for example, is little more than a mass of solid soda. Lakes Nakuru, Elmentaita, Natron and Manyara are not quite so uniformly solid but they do have large soda flats and the water has an extremely high salt content. Lakes Rudolf and Baringo are fresh enough to enable a rich fish life to exist and Lake Naivasha, supplied by fresh springs welling up from deep in the earth supports fish, plants and birds in almost incredible super-abundance. The formation of the Rift Valley has not yet been completed. The most recent studies suggest that it is still slowly widening and that perhaps ultimately, in many millions of years, the whole of Africa east of the Rift may split off to form a new sub-continent. As a result of this massive insult, the earth's crust in the area has, of course, been con siderably weakened. Several million years ago this weakening was made apparent by the development, in the floor of the Rift itself and along the cracks of weakness radiating from the main valley, of the vast numbers of volcanic formations on which much of the beauty of the region now depends. The most spectacular of these volcanoes are of course the giants of Mount Kenya, Mount Elgon, Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro (Kilima is Swahili for mountain and Mount Kilimanjaro is therefore a misnomer), but the Aberdares, the Chyulu and Taita Hills near Tsavo Park, the Ngongs near Nairobi and Longonot and Suswa in the floor of the valley are all beautiful and readily approached by the traveller. The oral traditions of the local people confirm that many of these volcanoes were active within the past few hundred years and most of them now contain hot springs and steamjets. One mountain, 01 Doinyo Lengai (The Mountain of God) in Northern Tanzania has been frequently active within living memory and last erupted violently in I966.
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