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Mount Kilimanjaro Amboseli National :: Kenyan Landscapes Image

Mt Kilimanjaro Amboseli National Park :: Kenya Landscapes Image

Mount Kilimanjaro Amboseli National :: Kenyan Landscapes Image

Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: 5,895 meters above sea level and about 4,900 meters above its plateau base.

Amboseli National Park is in southern Kenya. It’s known for its large elephant herds and views of the immense Mount Kilimanjaro, across the border in Tanzania. Observation Hill offers panoramas of the peak and the park’s plains and swamps. Varied wildlife includes giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, and hundreds of bird species. The western section is dominated by the vast Lake Amboseli, which is dry outside during the rainy season Amboseli National Park named from the Maasai word “empusel” meaning a sulty, dusty place is a great Kenya wildlife destination famously known for hosting large herds of elephants and scenic backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Chyulu Hills Kenya

Chyulu Hills Kenya: Chyulu Hills is a mountain range in Makueni County, South Eastern Kenya. It forms a 100-kilometer-long volcanic field in an elongated North West-South-East direction, its highest peak is 2188 meters high. The Chyulu Hills stood in for Ngong Hills for the filming of Out of Africa. Chyulu Hills National Park is also one to visit if you like the Levithian tube (also known as Kisula caves) which is about 11km long. One of the longest caves in Kenya and also in Africa, it is best visited during the sunny periods of January to March and also from June to September.

Chyulu Hills are located about 150 km east of the Kenya Rift Valley. The hills consist of several hundred small flows and cones. Volcanism in the area started about 1.4 million years ago in the northern parts of the hills, and over time the volcanism propagated towards the southeast. These volcanoes are still considered active, since their last two eruptions (Shaitani and Chainu) which occurred in 1856. Within the hills is the Leviathan cave, one of the longest tubes in the world. Kibwezi town is located 30 km northeast of the Chyulu Hills.

The Chyulu Hills do not have any permanent rivers, but rainfall on the hills feeds the Tsavo and Galana Rivers and Mzima Springs on the surrounding plains. Chyulu hills divide the Tsavo and Amboseli plains, the area is inhabited by the Maasai and Kamba people.

Lower parts of the hills are composed of grassland and thicket, while above roughly 1800 meters is dominated by the montane forest. The forest contains Neoboutonia macrocalyx, Tabernaemontana stapfiana, Prunus Africana, Strombosia scheffleri, Cassipourea malonsana, Ole capensis and llex mitis. Some isolated parts are dominated by Erythrina abyssinica. Lower parts of the forest are dominated either by Juniperus procera or Commphora baluensi.

Chyulu Hills inhabit mammals found include eastern black rhinos, cape buffaloes, bush backs, elands, elephants, bush pigs, Maasai giraffe, leopards, lions, mountain reedbucks, steenbok, wildebeest, and Grant’s Zebras, as well cheetahs are found at the plains of the Chyulu Hills. Various snakes inhabit the hills like the black mamba, puff adder, rock python, and many more.
Chyulu Hills Kenya
Giraffes

Chyulu Hills are relatively recent volcanic origin, and the range is composed of ash cones and craters. The hills hold no permanent surface water, but rainfall percolating through the porous rock feeds many permanent freshwater sources in the surrounding plains, notably Mzima Springs and the Tsavo and Galana Rivers.

The Chyulu Hills inhabit various bird species on the hills, with some endemic races. Bird species include the Francolinus shelleyi, Pogonocichla stellate, Zoothera gurneyi, Bradypterus cinnamomeus, Hieraaetus ayresii, Stephanoaetus coronatus, Polemaetus bellicosus, and Cinnyricinclus femoralis.

Wild Khat is growing on the hills, which is picked by local people. There is also some cultivation of Khat around the hills. Hat from Chyulu hills is known as Chyulu, as opposed to Mirra, which is cultivated in Meru County.
Chyulu Hills Kenya
Chyulu Hills Kenya

Chyulu Hills is usually visited as a side trip from Tsavo West National Park, it is located 232km/144 mi from Nairobi and 250km/155 mi from Mombasa.

Best time to visit Chyulu Hills.

Chyulu Hills can be visited year-round, but wildlife viewing is usually best in the dry months from June to October and January to February. Visits during the peak of the short rains (November) and especially during the long rains (April and May), might be challenging.

Chyulu Hills are home to the Maasai people, small-holder farmers, and the regions of the iconic including some of the largest populations of elephants in Kenya. They are also beset by unsustainable land use and deforestation. In the face of these struggles, a new plan is afoot to restore these famous hills.

Mount Kilimanjaro Amboseli National :: Kenyan Landscapes Image

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