SOUTH TURKANA NATIONAL RESERVE

Altitude: 2,000 to 6,780 feet above sea level.

Area: 1,091 square kilometers

Airstrips: Turkwel Dam

Opened: October 1979

Activities: Scenic landscape and Mountain Vistas.

Not on any traditional tourist circuit, this area is relatively unknown. It has a number of permanent rivers with woodland fringes and salty springs. Wildlife is plentiful: elephant, giraffe, buffalo, eland, Oryx, impala, bushbuck, greater Kudu, grants and Thompson’s gazelle, lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena and jackal. There are crocodiles in the rivers and abundant birdlife much of which gathers on the banks of the Kerio River. There are no lodges or roads as yet within the Reserve.

Nasalot National Reserve is quite small, covering an area of 92 sq. kms. it is mainly plains broken up by the impressive Sekess Hills, a continuation of the Cherangani ridges. To the north it is bordered by a section of the Turkwel River and the Wei Wei River bounds it to the east. It has an important eco-system with river valleys and floodplains, which support evergreen forests dominated by fig and acacia trees and many types of papyrus and sedges.

Game to view includes: elephant, hippo, giraffe, impala, grant and Thompson’s Gazelle, plains zebra, eland, Lesser Kudu, bushbuck, duiker and dik-dik and their predators- lion, leopard, spotted hyena and jackal. There are Olive Baboon and Vervet monkeys and crocodiles are found in the rivers. Over 150 species of birdlife. There is a murram airstrip at the Turkwel hydroelectric dam and two campsites.