I have seen pictures of lakes and springs with naturally coloured water; the blue waters of Blue Grotto in Italy, the pink waters of Lake Retba in Senegal and so on. You can imagine my excitement when  I saw a blue waterfall, gathering into a glistening blue pool, and found out it was in Kenya, only about 5hrs from Nairobi!

Ngare Ndare is Maasai for ‘water for the goats’. The forest is an indigenous forest corridor linking elephants’ path from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to the rich grazing on the hills of Mt. Kenya. Its river, Ngare Ndare, originates from a spring in the forest, and creates blue pools that go on to provide water for the wildlife along its banks and the surrounding communities. Activities within the forest include camping, hiking, game drives, swimming in the waterfall pools, cliff diving, abseiling and a very picturesque canopy walk where one can spot game.

Below are some of the pictures I took.

We spotted an elephant from the canopy walk, and that was one of my highlights; spotting game from that angle.

This trip was organized by Alvana Safaris that do day and weekend trips to exciting spots. You can find them across all social media networks.

Extra tips;

1. Avoid going in a very large group as the forest authorities don’t allow large groups to swim or cliff dive in the blue pool. You can however visit and do these activities in the other pools.

2. Ask for a security guide and make sure you’re within his call/reach.

A sad statistic of the forest ( which is included as an extension of the Mount Kenya UNESCO World Heritage Site) is that most of its visitors are non-local tourists. I didn’t know about the forest myself until late last year but I think it’s such a gem, and really, every able Kenyan should pay it a visit. It really is a very nourishing place.

I’ll be going camping with with a couple of friends in March (2017) so email me if you’re interested.

Good luck!

More pictures on my social media pages.

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Contact: akenyannomad@gmail.com