Shambala Swamp

Swamp with dead trees

This past January I had to travel to a distant government headquarters about four hours southwest of where I live. It was a very uneventful trip (hence I didn't even blog about it here) but I did see something that caught my eye on the return trip; a big swamp. On my return trip I gave someone a ride and they had commented that the swamp was dry for the first time that they could remember. At the time we were experiencing very dry times and the absence of typical "short rains" in December. I decided that when the rains returned, it might be a cool place to check out.

Well, the rains returned last week and when thinking of what to do this weekend, the swamp came straight to mind. Satellite images like Google Earth have their value but in rural areas here it's impossible to tell what roads are for animals, motorcycles, or cars. Thus, at a point we just have to rely on what information we can see from the road and asking local advice. Since I had seen the swamp from the road, I thought we could probably just find our way to the edge of it, despite any clearly marked roads on satellite images.

We left around 8am and it took us around 2 1/2 hours to reach a point where we could see the swamp. The road we had thought to take toward the swamp ended up being a dried river bed, not a road. We hadn't noticed any clear looking roads on the way and instead of backtracking I thought, what the heck, lets follow the river bed as far as we can get. It was true off-roading and I kept a steady eye on the clouds since a heavy rain and flash flood would certainly be unwelcome. We finally made it to a more defined road (relative to!) right on the edge of the swamp and celebrated.

We spent the rest of the day going down the swamp and checking at various points to hike out to see the swamp edge or chase birds in the surrounding acacia scrub. The rains had brought on the green foliage and the area had a higher density of larger trees than compared to the acacia habitats we usually frequent. There were very few people that mostly came from very small villages closer to the main road. They shared that the swamp was indeed dry this year and the water only recently has arrived. They said it wasn't worth it to fish yet but they could fetch water and their cattle enjoyed grazing the marsh.

One very strange feature of the northern end of the swamp was the presence of many dead trees. There was a kind of 10m buffer that contained dried and eery looking dead trees. We asked the locals and they said the trees, "like water, but not too much water. And those trees have too much water", which touche, is a reasonable explanation.

We decided the swamp was likely a great place to do some bush camping, especially after the rains subside a bit. We're not sure how the rains drain into the swamp from above and for sure we don't want to find ourselves getting swept in the swamp in our tent! We'll continue to take trips to explore all the sides that we can and we're pretty happy to have found a new spot to explore.

Totally creepy area, but I loved the vibe. 

View of Mt. Meru. 

View south. 

Mt. Meru in the background.