Magical walk through Podo Path

The recently planted wheat fields are a lush green carpet on the fertile red soils of the Uasin Gishu.

Flocks of crowned cranes look pretty as we drive past to reach a glade of forest surrounded by the fields of wheat, maize and villages.

“Did you hear that?” asks James Cullen who lives on the edge of the Pombo-Sabor forest also called Kaptagat. “It’s the Hartlaub’s turaco.”

We crane our necks just in time to catch the flash of scarlet red underwing flying above.

The turaco perches on the tall tree and goes about its business looking for berries on the trees. Cullen is a horse rider and trainer and knows most of the trails in the forest.

A stream flows past, its water clean and cool.

A few feet away is Pombo pump (Pombo is a derivative of pump) on Naiberi River.

We use the stepping stones to cross Naiberi. “Chepkoilel and Kipsinende also flow through the forest and the three flow into Two Rivers dam, where the water supply for Eldoret is stored,” explains Dr Paula Braitstein who also lives on the edge of the forest. Encouraged by her husband Ash Vyas who knows every inch of the forest since childhood, she discovered more of it as she began exploring it on horseback.

“It gets better as we go deeper inside the forest,” says Paula.

Narrow paths lead through the tallest podo trees and the fresh, clean air of the forest is revitalizing.

I call it the Podo Path. Suddenly the trees rustle above and a troop of colobus monkeys are busy foraging their morning meal.

This is the Guereza colobus different from the Angolan colobus on South Coast.

A family of squirrels rush though the canopies without having to come down to earth.

“Look, there’s a blue monkey too,” points Cullen. And about a dozen Hartlaub’s turacos perched on one tree.

It’s spectacular.

Thick green moss covers the tree trunks and orchids hang from the branches while leaves and mushrooms cover the forest floor. Rays of sunlight filter though the canopy.

According to Dr Dino Martins, a local from Eldoret and Kenya’s top entomologist who was recently selected as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer for 2011 there could be 40 species of orchid in the forest and around 150 species of butterflies but because the forest has not been studied in detail, it’s just a rough estimate.

“But if the forest is lost, there will be no water in the dam for Eldoret,” he says.

“These are the indigenous podo trees,” continues Cullen. Growing up in Timboroa, he recalls days when the mornings were mist clad and even on the sunniest days it was cold because of the forests.

Timboroa boasts of the equator running through it and having a railway station at the highest altitude in the world.
The podo that is my height is at least a couple of decades old and those that are saplings today will take hundreds of years to reach the towering heights that surround us. “We are seeing more saplings now since we put up the fence,” says Paula.

It’s a good sign because since the villagers registered its Community Based organization called the Pombo-Sabor Kaptagat Forest Users Conservation Group, they have fenced part of the forest to stop livestock and tree-poachers from invading and hence more of the forests reviving. Alfred Chebii and William Kamboi Baliet the village elder join us.

“Chamge,” they greet us in the Keiyo lingo. The Keiyo is one of the Kalenjin sub-groups, and speak Kalenjin.

“Before we registered the forest group, all sorts of people were coming in and stealing our trees,” says Chebii.

I have to gape at the fattest fig tree that l have ever seen. It’s branches fan out like a giant umbrella. I’m sure it would take at least 20 people to circle it.

“We’ve been told that it’s at least 1,000 years old,” says Paula.

“We call it Big Daddy and the other one is Big Mama,” jokes Paula.

“In Kalenjin ‘Kaptagat’ means the place of bamboo,” continues Cullen.

“Until 10 years ago, this forest was completely closed canopy and you could barely see the sky. There were many rosewood trees which we don’t see now because it’s good for carving and making charcoal.”

Twenty years ago there was elephant, buffalo, and many leopard in the forest. “Now only a few leopard remain including a melanistic one too.” I ask him if we can see it – leopards are one of the most elusive animals in the world.

“In the old days, this would have been part of the Mau, Kakamega, Naiberi forest,” continues Cullen.

Today fragments remain. As we step out of the forest, a runner runs by training at high altitude.

The region produces some of the world’s best.

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