Roho Ya Chui, Swahili for "soul of leopard", your partner for innovative training solutions in combination with safari packages and wildlife photography.
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M a s a i M a r a & W e s t e r n K e n ya l a K E V I c T o R I a M a s a i M a r a & W e s t e r n K e n ya g E T T I N g T H E R E & a W a y M a s a i M a r a & W e s t e r n K e n ya M B I T a & R U s I N g a I s l a N D and a fully functioning kitchen, but bring your own food. 8 Getting There & Away With your own vehicle, head a couple of kilo- metres south from Homa Bay and turn right onto the Mbita road. after about 12km you'll come to the main access road, which is signed just as Kenya Wildlife services (coming from Homa Bay, you might not see the sign as it faces the other way), and from there it's another 11km to the park entrance. The park's roads are in decent shape, but require a mega-4WD in the rainy season. Mbita & Rusinga Island P OP 28,000 Mbita and Rusinga Island (connected by a causeway) are delightful. Tiny, languid and rarely visited, they offer a glimpse of an older Africa – an Africa that moves to the gentle sway of the seasons rather than the ticking of a clock. This is the sort of place where schoolchildren abandon their classes to watch you pass by and old women burst into song at your arrival. 1 Sights & Activities Tom Mboya's Mausoleum HIsToRIc sITE A child of Rusinga and a former sanitary inspector in Nairobi, Mboya was one of the few Luo people to achieve any kind of polit- ical success. He held a huge amount of in- fluence as Jomo Kenyatta's right-hand man and was widely tipped to become Kenya's second president before he was assassinat- ed in 1969. His tomb and a small museum dedicated to his life are on the island's north side. To get there from the causeway and Rusinga town, take the right-hand road at the junction and, after around 12km, take the road off to the right with the sign pointing to Kolunga Beach. Turn right again about 50m later, continue straight for around 700m and, at the junction with the small sign to the museum, go right. It's the bullet-shaped building (which symbolises the bullet that killed him) in front of you. Entry is by donation – KSh200 should be enough. There are no set opening hours but the caretaker will quickly turn up to show you around. Mbasa Island WIlDlIFE REsERVE Also known as Bird Island, Mbasa is home to a wide variety of wetland birds, includ- ing long-tailed cormorants (which have a breeding colony here), fish eagles, marsh harriers and little white egrets. Bird con- centrations are thickest at sunset, when peripatetic birds return to roost. To get here you'll need to arrange a boat with a lo- cal fisherman or ask at the Wayando Beach Club Eco Lodge; expect to pay between KSh4000 and KSh7000 per boat. 4 Sleeping & Eating Rusinga Guesthouse gUEsTHoUsE $ (% 0705146134; rusingaguesthouse@yahoo.com; Rusinga; s Ksh1200-1500, d/tw Ksh1500/1700; p W ) Far enough from the bars to offer a quiet night's sleep, this guesthouse sets a bar of its own in terms of value for money. The rooms are pristine and the mosquito nets are yet to acquire holes. The staff are endearingly shy and the restaurant can sort you out with the standard chicken or fish options (mains KSh210 to KSh300). THIMLICH OHINGA South of Ruma National Park, Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site (admission Ksh1000) is one of Ea Africa's mo important archaeological sites. It holds the remains of a dry- one enclosure, 150m in diameter and containing another five smaller enclo- sures, thought to date back as far as the 15th century. Getting to Thimlich is a problem without your own transport, though not completely impossible (with patience). Head 12km down the Homa Bay–Rongo road then turn right at Rod Kopany village, heading southwe through Mirogi to the village of Miranga. The site is signpo ed from there. If you don't have wheels, take a matatu from Kisii towards Isebania on the Tanzania border and hop out at Suna. Take another matatu from here towards Karunga and ask to be let out at the junction for Thimlich Ohinga or Miranga (you might find a matatu going directly from Suna to here). From the junction, hunt about for any kind of transport to the entrance of Thimlich Ohinga. 1 3 0