Shimba Hills Forest – The Discovery of a Coastal Gem

Barely a month after the first world war ended, David Sheldrick was born. This was in Alexandria in Egypt. At the time, his father worked under the Army Remount Service – the branch responsible for the purchase and training of horses for the British Army. Once the war was over, the Sheldrick family relocated to Kenya and settled in Mweiga, an area just outside of Nyeri. Due to the lush soils of this highland area, it was only a matter of time before Mr. Sheldrick took up farming and his only child, watching his father, was bound to follow suit – or so it may have seemed. 

Some years later, David was sent to a boarding school in south-west England. He studied through to his A-levels and thereafter returned to Kenya. But by then preparations for the Second World War had begun and David was enlisted to serve in the King’s African Rifles (KAR). He was stationed in Abyssinia and Burma where he worked hard and became the youngest KAR officer to be promoted to Major. 

By the time the war ended, David was still a sturdy, young man. He married Daphne – a Kenyan of British descent and the two continued their life in Kenya. David took to farming but soon found himself drawn to the various wildlife in Kenya. In 1948 he became the founder Warden of the Tsavo National Park where his work was to deal with the problem of armed poachers and develop the area’s infrastructure. Additionally, David and Daphne took to studying elephants and their lifestyles, going as far as rescuing and hand-rearing vulnerable elephants and rhinos. 

It is said that once when he was flying over the Shimba Hills Forest, he discovered a 25 metre cascade hidden in the forest – though it is also very possible that the Mijikenda people who inhabited the area already knew of this serene waterfall. Nonetheless, this feature would be named after Sheldrick and a little later, the famous writer Ernest Hemingway would go on a safari that would lead him here.

The Sheldrick Waterfall was gazetted by independent Kenya’s first government in 1968. It was identified as the only waterfall in the coastal region and placed under the protection of the Kenya Wildlife Service within the Shimba Hills National Reserve.  

Shimba Hills is said to be one of the largest East African coastal forests after the Arabuko Sokoke Forest, and within it is another forest called the Mwaluganje Forest. The Shimba Reserve is famous because it hosts the rare Sable antelope but elephant shrew and bushy tailed mongoose can be found too. 

Have you seen this famous waterfall? Or visited the Shimba Hills National Reserve? We hear that some Mijikenda Kayas can be found here…. Let us know! 

David and Daphne Sheldrick

Sheldrick Falls. Image credit: KWS

Shimba Hills. Image credit: KWS