iKWETA Safari Camp
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This is a favourite of iKWETA Safari Camp guests…

Approx. 2 hours. Morning or evening. Latest afternoon departure, around 15:30. Charges: inquire at Reception. “Sundowner” by arrangement (inquire at Reception).

Hike to Gatwe (“Skull” Hill) and enjoy panoramic views of the entire Meru Conservation Area, including Meru National Park, the blue Nyambene Hills [Nyambene Forest and Water Tower], and parts of northern Kenya.

Drive through small-scale tea farm landscapes en route to Nyambene Forest and Water Tower and the dams of Tuuru Water Scheme. Visit Kiegoi Tea Factory, one of Kenya’s “fair trade”** success stories (by arrangement), and other places of interest, including Maria Consolata Shrine at Mukululu Catholic Mission.

Half-day or full-day options may include packed-Lunch in Nyambene Forest. Charges: for guide and conservation fees (for group of any size); inquire at Reception.

**See Note at bottom on the concept of fair trade.

Nyambene Forest and Water Tower is the source of water and livelihood for much of the population in the region of Mount Kenya East (large swathes of Meru, Tharaka-Nithi and Embu Counties). It is the source of the 14 permanent rivers and streams which crisscross Meru National Park thus making it one of the best watered national parks in Kenya.

This excursion takes visitors on a rapid ascend – from around 800m at iKWETA Safari Camp, to around 2,500m – through small market centres and farmlands of scenic landscapes where some of the best quality tea in the world is grown for export.

Kenya tea is one of the top foreign exchange earners, alongside tourism, horticulture and coffee. The growing of tea in this region by small-scale farmers has had a significant impact in uplifting the quality of livelihoods of the local people.

The excursion takes visitors deep into the Nyambene Forest and Water Tower where the dams of the Tuuru Water Scheme are located. A walk in this equatorial forest is a wonderful experience for its serenity, peace and tranquility and because the forest and water tower (like Mount Kenya and Magado Crater [Igombe] (see under excursion), is considered holy and sacred by the Meru people.

Because “water is life”, the Nyambene Forest and Water Tower is central in the spiritual practices and governance systems of the Meru people. Protecting and conserving the forest and water tower is considered paramount for safeguarding the Meru territory itself – that is to maintaining its order, integrity, well-being, and sustainability.

“Oh Ngai o Nyambene ne Igombe (Magado Crater)…”
– Oh God of Nyambene and Igombe …;
“Oh Ngai o Nyambene na Kirimara …”
– Oh God of Nyambene and Mount Kenya …

These are common exhortations to God among the Meru people preceding prayers for blessings, including for rain.

The Tuuru Water project, an endeavor of the Catholic Diocese of Meru and the local communities, distributes water over an area of 1,200 sq km of both high and low population densities. The aqueducts extend over 250 km and channel more than 36 million liters of water per day to more than a quarter million people and more than 60,000 large and small domestic animals.

The Italian missionary, the late Brother Giuseppe Argesse, known as “Mukiri” by the local community (because he was a man of action and few words…), is credited with the success of the Tuuru Water Scheme, that is literally for “quenching the community’s thirst for pure drinking water”…

Brother Argesse arrived in Kenya in 1957, at the age of 23, and served for some 61 years until his death in September 2018 at the age of 84. He was honoured by the United Nations in 1999 with the prestigious Path to Peace award at a ceremony at UN headquarters in New York for the contribution “he made to the development of peace at an international level”.

**NOTE ON THE CONCEPT OF FAIR TRADE**

The concept of fair trade, now widely accepted and practiced by progressive entities around the world, entails offering farmers and workers in the developing countries better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and ensuring fair terms of trade.

The practice requires companies to pay sustainable prices (that is prices which must never fall lower than the market price).

The practice of fair trade also attempts to address the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest and weakest producers.

The overriding concern about fair trade is to enable the poorest and weakest producers improve their position and have more control over their lives.

Full-day excursion with packed-Lunch. Depart iKWETA Safari Camp in the morning after Breakfast; trek to the bottom of the crater; explore the lake and its environs; trek back to the rim of the crater for Lunch; return in late afternoon. Charges: for 2 rangers to accompany visitors (inquire at Reception).

The Magado Crater [also known as “Igombe” among the Meru people] is situated at the north-eastern tip of the Nyambene range of hills. The lake at the bottom of the crater is a spectacular splendor of patches of colour – with dark purple, bright red and green being dominant. Parts of the lake evaporate to form soda salt crust.

Like Mount Kenya and Nyambene Forest and Water Tower [see under excursion], Magado Crater [Igombe] is considered holy and sacred by the Meru people.

“Oh Ngai o Nyambene ne Igombe [Magado Crater] …”
– Oh God of Nyambene and Igombe …;
“Oh Ngai o Nyambene na Kirimara….”
– Oh God of Nyambene and Mount Kenya …

There are common exhortations among the Meru people preceding prayers for various blessings, including for rain.

The excursion takes visitors through small towns of the Meru countryside where “miraa” [also known as khat] is the major cash crop, more important economically in this region than coffee and tea.

After the Mutuati market, there is steady descend overlooking largely arid and semi-arid spectacular landscapes of northern Kenya.

The crater is located a short distance from the small market centre of Gachiuru [‘the place of many bird nests’]. The name of the market centre in the Kimeru language is quite apt as most of the trees in the surrounding bushes are literally adorned with bird nests …

The crater rises 73 meters above the surrounding area. It has an average diameter of 800 meters and an average crater depth below the rim of 140 meters. Debris blasted out during the crater eruption formed a rim 80-100 meters thick.

From the top, the view of the bottom of the crater is one dotted with hundreds of domestic animals watering at the lake, or peacefully grazing by the shores. Magado Crater is the only place for long distances around where animals can water and have access to the much desired natural salts.

The trek to the bottom of the crater, waddling between scores of small and large livestock, is in itself quite an experience.

The chorus, or rather the cacophony of sounds – of the mooing of the cows, the hee-hawing of the donkeys, the mee-meeing of the goats and the bleating of the sheep – all anxiously trying to weave their way through the narrow crevices to the lake as quickly as possible to quench their thirst and to lick the natural salts – is like a scene from time immemorial …

NOTE 1: A video by Zammy Mustaq is a celebration of the epic beauty of the Magado | Igombe crater. It will make you want to visit…

NOTE 2: The crater was also featured in “Africa from the air: Martin Harvey’s aerial photos of landscapes and wildlife” (The Telegraph’s Travel Magazine, 31 Aug 2012).

The three optional excursions that iKWETA Safari Camp offers its guests [see the details, above], may be innovative ways for family members and other groups to bond among the team members, to reduce personal stress, and to give the chance to people to get to know each other better while appreciating the great outdoors.

In our experience, nothing says “let’s work together”, or “let’s just have fun”, like members hiking to Gatwe (“Skull” Hill) near iKWETA Safari Camp …

Similarly, nothing provides better bonding opportunities than step-challenges between members

– from where they park their vehicle, and trek to the dams of Tuuru Water Scheme deep in the Nyambene Forest and Water Tower, and back;

– from where they park their vehicle at the rim of the Magado (Igombe) crater in the Nyambene National Reserve, and trek to and from the lake at the bottom of the crater while negotiating their way between thirsty livestock, as they and them waddle their way to the lake and later to the rim of the crater…