Kinale – The Enchanted Forest

For most of us, the Nairobi-Nakuru highway has become a familiar route once we’ve packed our bags, fueled our cars or hopped on a bus, headed upcountry. For some, this is the route to a weekend getaway or perhaps a journey back to our hometowns. Along this memorable highway we find several eye catching, thought provoking visuals and among them, the Kinale Forest.  

A cluster of trees standing together as though in a community meeting would have a keen observer in a passing vehicle imagine that it hosts different kind of worldly beings. If your imagination is as strong as we believe it is, you may picture them too looking back at the road ferrying the vehicles and seeing – or rather picturing – your world. 

As you walk into the forest, the trees of Kinale tower over you. In the early morning, the fog takes precedence over the pathways and you’d probably need a torch to find your way through this forest. If you are the horror movie “don’t go there” kind of person, perhaps you could wait for daylight to take its toll before you decide to take a stroll. However, if you’re the brave type, be sure to carry your camera to picture the fogginess in the wee morning hours alongside a bag packed with a heavy jacket and scarves. 

When the sun is up and daylight is in control, the forest boasts its green and hilly surrounding. Kinale is also called Kinare Forest so if your mother-tongue takes first place in your pronunciation, you are right regardless of how you choose to say the name. Furthermore, this forest is one of the forest blocks within the greater Gatamaiyu Forest Nature Reserve, grouped within the Kikuyu Escarpment forest. 

This beautiful woodland is also a floral mosaic where orchids grow in plenty, as well as bamboo stalks due to the area’s high altitude. The forest also houses several bird species for our ornithologist readers and from one area you can view the elephant hill that leads to the Aberdare Ranges. 

So, when’s your next road trip along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway? How about a half hour pit stop at the Kinale (Kinare) Forest? 

#ForestsOfKenya #MisituZetu 

Image credits: Owaya Sikobe