Travel Guide Saiwa Swamp National Park

Measuring 3 km², Saiwa Swamp is the smallest park in Kenya. It was created in 1974 to protect the rare sitatunga. This small and shy antelope is difficult to observe because it has the particularity to spend long hours immersed in the swamp, leaving only the tip of its snout. Another amazing characteristic is that it has very long hooves which allow it not to sink into the swampy areas.A few hundred sitatungas (the estimate seems a bit optimistic) live in the park along with monkeys (colobus, Brazza's cercopithecus...), a multitude of birds (cranes, ibis, touracos...) and many small animals, including giant squirrels, otters or pottos (small nocturnal animals with large eyes). A huge swampy area covered with reeds and papyrus alternates with a very dense rainforest where many epiphytic plants grow. Like Kakamega, this is an excellent park for travelers who do not have their own vehicle, as it is only possible to walk around. It is one of the most pleasant parks to visit, and the almost total absence of tourists increases this pleasure. You can walk around it in a few hours thanks to a network of paths, footbridges (wobbly) and observation towers. What happiness to walk alone, in the middle of the marshes, in an absolute calm, only disturbed from time to time by a quarrel of monkeys! The observatories have been installed to see the sitatunga antelope (think of binoculars), but it happens that we leave empty-handed. No matter, the walk in this enchanting site is worth the visit alone