Attractions in Marsabit County
26. Maikona Village
The ever pocket-sized Maikona Village which is no more than a row of dukas, a Catholic Mission Church and traditional Gabbra huts is in the same way a very useful half-way town on the back-of-beyond 271 kms journey between Marsabit National Reserve and Sibiloi National Park crossing Chalbi Desert. A far-flung hamlet sprung to life by life-giving oasis, Maikona always beckons as a welcome relief for motorists and the first sign of life after an endless stretch of desolation across the Chalbi. “As we near Maikona Village, the only settlement we’ve seen from Marsabit National Park, the scenery changes and the vegetation becomes more abundant. Straw huts appear across the horizon, goats graze on whatever little greenery they can find and camels are kept in thorny enclosures.” – Grete Travel. Prominent for its spectacular sand dunes reachable on a walking trip, Maikona Village is also a centuries old pit-stop for thousands of livestock often spotted watering around the famous Maikona Oasis. Trippers with a day or two to spare to explore the landscape and cultures of Maikona Village can stay at the Catholic Mission Church running a good lodge that serves cold beers. Maikona is set 124 kms northwest of Marsabit, and 186 kms before Sibiloi National Park.
27. Hurri Hills
It is 43 kms from Maikona to Kalacha, resuming the expedition across Chalbi Desert. About 10 kms before arriving at Kalacha, cut from the same cloth with Maikona, you reach the turnoff to Hurri Hills – along C82 Road. That is to say, there are two routes linking Maikona and Kalacha – the E670 Road travelling away from the Hurri Hills and the C82 towards the Hurri Hills. From Kalacha it’s about 71 kms east then north to the hills. “The Hurri Hills, a remote region of large lava cones, is located between Chalbi Desert and the Kenyan-Ethiopian border in central-north Kenya. The Hurri Hills rise about 300 meters (985 feet) above the lava plateau, reaching 1524 meters (5000 feet) above sea level. Just north of the Hurri Hills, separated by a descending plain of black-cotton-soil, lies the granitic Mount Forole (1887 meters; 6200 feet). This sacred mountain marks the Kenyan-Ethiopian border” – National Geographic. The pyramidal series of peaks of the Hurri Hills, at hand with the Ethiopia-Kenya boundary, stage the abrupt end to the seemingly boundless outreach of the Chalbi Desert. Based on appearance alone their greenery is splendid – following the surfeit of the salt-encrusted desert – with over 20 conical low-lying hills. A short journey north of the Hurri Hills (1524 ms) you find the Sacred Mount Forore (1887 ms).
28. Sacred Mount Forore
The Sacred Mount Forore, a magnificent granitic mountain peaking at 1880 ms and marking the Kenyan-Ethiopian border, is at most times of year a plenitude of green, picked-up from where grandiose landscape of Hurri Hills ceases and across the barren plain that separates these two hills. Mount Forore, a facsimile of Hurri Hills, forming an astonishing green belt in contrast to the windswept sun-baked plain, is especially superb soon after the rains in May, June and July.
29. Kalacha Rock Art
Found at the periphery of the Chalbi Desert, in North Horr, Kalacha is a land of a myriad allures. The ancient rock engraving of the Kalacha Rock Art, of mostly animals, are thought to be associated with rainmaking and date back over 1000 years. Also of interest close to Kalacha Rock Art site are the Agfaba Rock Art, Agfaba waterholes, cultural tourism into Gabbra villages, the Annual Kalacha Festival, the Kalacha Cultural Cottages (or Kalacha Camp) and Maikona Village.
30. Sibiloi National Park
The 1570 km2 Sibiloi National Park at the northeast shore of Lake Turkana is a hauntingly beautiful park marked by barren baked rocks trembled and quivered by mirage. Other than a few metres along the shore of the lake, Sibiloi National Park is an endless profusion of arid or near desert scrubland. It’s also along the shore where large populations of both species of zebra, topi, oryx and antelope freely roam, and where one of Kenya’s largest surviving busk of crocodiles also thrives. Perhaps more than any National Park in Kenya, it offers the element of challenge and is not an easy destination to reach. The roads about it are not well demarcated other than the parkway to its headquarters and to the famous base camp at Koobi Fora Museum. Still and all, for all the difficulty of getting there, Sibiloi National Park is a rewarding place to visit and offers a plethora of unique sights far different and diverse in comparison to other parks. Sibiloi National Park is world-famous for its fossil beds which gained international fame as the source of much information on man’s paleontological history. Then, there’s the volcanic formations including Mount Sibiloi, where the remains of a petrified forest can be seen – a once-great cedar forest which covered the Lake’s shores 7 million years ago. At Koobi Fora Museum, caller to the park can also see a well preserved elephant fossil that dates 1.7 million years back which is among the unique archaeological findings here. It’s found about 800 kms north of Nairobi.
Abiri Kenya 