Kakamega Forest

Photos of Kakamega Forest

Salina, Ayaka and I went to the Kakamega Forest, which is a national forest about 2 hours north of Kisumu. It was a bumpy matatu ride, but well worth it. Matatus are quintessentially African. They are old vans that are gutted and seats are added to take around 9 passengers. You will never see a matatu with only 9 passengers. The ones we rode had around 14-18 people in it, which makes sense because it is a very cheap travel option. They work like taxis around town, as well as long distance trips (there are matatus from Kisumu to Nairobi – a 6ish hour trip). When they drive by you just wave and hop on and hope to find a seat.

The forest itself was amazing. East Africa does not have many hardcore rainforests anymore. Millions of years ago most of Sub-Saharan Africa was a rainforest, but slowly the savanna took over and limited the rainforest to mainly central Africa. Kakamega Forest is a rare plot of rainforest that refused to change into savanna. Plenty of great trees, monkeys, and friendly forest rangers who showed us around. We trekked to a small waterfall, then heard some thunder, and ended up sprinting out of the forest. Despite our efforts, we got soaked along with come locals before we waited under the cover of a small shack for the next matatu speeding along the highway back to Kisumu.