Minja Forest Reserve

A local duka (shop) with the clouds coming in from the east. This shot was taken along the main road in the North Pare mountains. 

A view of the savanna looking to the west as we climb up the mountains. 

The North Pare mountains are one of our favorite places to go on a hike and we recently got a little more adventurous by visiting a forest reserve that was a bit harder to get to than our previous trips to the area. Instead of a Lonely Planet guide book, we have relied more on academic studies that have investigated the biodiversity in the North Pare mountains. We've found some great research studies that have not only done a good job with their primary motive (biodiversity studies) but also explaining where different forest reserves are and their current health. Our previous trips have focused exclusively on Kindoroko Forest (1,2,3), which is a more frequently visited area, though it's all relative since we haven't ever seen anyone else in the forest. We wanted to venture out to the smaller forest reserves and take advantage of the fact that we have a motorcycle that can navigate the terrain.

A map depicting the Eastern Arc Mountains. The red bits are the Eastern Arc while the yellow bits are other volcanic mountains which are not geologically related.

This is a more detailed map of the forest reserves found in the North Pare mountains. 

After some research we decided we would conduct a scouting mission to the Minja Forest Reserve. As you can see on the map above, it's not as large as Kindoroko Forest Reserve but it is dense and green enough to be enticing. The real challenge was trying to figure out how to get inside the forest as the area is obviously mountainous and without much tourism we figured we would have to just see when we got there. This is made more challenging by the fact that we prefer to hike without a local guide; if we hired a local guide (if they exist) it would probably make things much clearer, though some sense of adventure may be lost and certainly the solitary sense of forest hiking would be diminished. In the end we prefer to study the maps available, load up our GPS, and head into the forest. If we fail to find an entry point, we can always come crawling back and enlist some local guiding.

Ana enjoying the view. 

Lake Jipe in the background. 

The eastern edge of the mountains. 

The trail along the eastern side. 

More mountain views. 

The first part of our journey went very smooth. We had to leave the main road and traverse through several villages on our way to the last village on the map before Minja Forest Reserve. I was afraid the road would be in poor condition and perhaps there would be some ambiguous turns but it was all very straightforward and whenever we were in doubt we simply asked someone and they pointed us in the right direction. The scenery was absolutely stunning as we wound through the mountains with a mix of forested and cultivated areas.

When we finally reached the last village on the map we could see Minja Forest Reserve towering in the nearby distance. The area was much steeper than I had imagined and I was beginning to feel a little discouraged about finding the way in. While Kindoroko Forest Reserve had somewhat decent trails and evidence of occasional tourism, I was afraid that Minja Forest Reserve wouldn't have such clearly marked paths though we had read that there was exploitation of non-timber forest products so we hoped there would be at least some game trails or bush paths. And considering it took us a half day to find an entrance to Kindoroko (which still is definitely not meant to be the main entrance), the situation appeared grim.

We basically kept following the road as it got skinnier and skinnier until it literally turned into a footpath with boulders jutting up which prevented even the most intrepid motorcyclist to pass. We saw a sign that marked one of the boundaries of the reserve and it appeared they had planted Eucalyptus trees to delineate the border. This made it very clear to follow and I thought it was a clever idea to prevent encroachment. The road continued on past the signpost so we decided to walk along it, partially to mark it with the GPS so we could see where it led later, and partially to get a view from the side of the mountain overlooking the savanna. Scenic vistas are few and far between inside the forest so the view was welcome.

We were now on the eastern side of the mountains and the view was spectacular overlooking the Kenyan savanna and Lake Jipe. We were hiking on a very gradual downward slope and we met a few people long the path whom were going to their shamba (farm) or their house on the side of the mountain. It appeared the path slowly wound down the side of the mountain and perhaps there was a footpath linking with the road along the east of the mountain range. We walked for about a 1/2 hour before we decided to double back to the forest reserve sign that we had seen.

Deep in the forest. 

There was an awesome river with some great trees.

The Eucalyptus trees on the left were planted every few meters to form the boundary. 

A view from one of the houses directly outside the forest reserve. 

Taking a rest inside the forest. 

Next to the forest reserve sign and eucalyptus trees there was a small house. We went up to the house and an old woman greeted us, along with a group of five or so small children. We explained to her that we wanted to go hiking and she said we could take a trail from her house up to the main trail. She said there were several areas to go walking but if it was our first time we should be careful to not get lost. We thanked her for her advice and we left at about 11:00AM.

We spent the rest of the day hiking through the forest, some of the paths clearly marked while some of them were not so clear. We ended up making a nice loop and found a few entry points next to people's houses, much like the entry point that we came in from. The forest had an excellent mix of sub-montane forest and some spots of secondary growth. The forest had been well preserved and we even saw a fleeting glimpse of a small mammal, possibly a duiker. There was a small stream that ran through the forest and around it was quintessential rainforest. The hike was steep, but not as steep as Kindorko forest with more trails and routes; especially excellent was the presence of a circular route (Kindoroko you have to double back or you come out quite far from other entry points).

We ended up seeing a lot of the forest though when we plugged in the GPS points we saw there was a lot more of the forest to see! We can't wait to get back out and try to climb up the north side of the forest to experience the depth of Minja Forest Reserve!

Map of our hike. We hope to push north to the deeper forest on our next trip!