So next Monday, February 2, is World Wetlands Day.
Who cares, you ask? Well, I was browsing the net looking for information on Lake Naivasha when I unexpectedly bumped into this web log, kind of like an online journal detailing the experiences of an elderly South African couple called John and Arlene and whose avowed mission is to travel from Cape to Cairo – get this…on a motorcycle!
As if the fete weren’t amazing enough for an elderly couple, the chronicles of their travels make for mind-blowing reading. Titled “Africa on a Wing and a Prayer”, the blog is a blow by blow account of the amazing places the couple visits in different countries across the African continent as they record their adventure for posterity; Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Egypt.
So how does this tie in with WWD? I’ll tell you. During John and Arlene’s stay in memorable Kenya, they happen to (naturally) visit some of it’s world-famous national parks and game reserves. The Maasai Mara, L. Nakuru and Hell’s Gate national parks are all part of the itinerary in their journey into the Kenyan hinterland. In their own words, the Rift Valley is indescribable in its beauty:
Coming from Nairobi we have to stop and put on our fleeces. And as usual and from nowhere kids materialise to see us kit up and to ask a few questions. A classic one is ‘is this a Landrover motorbike?’ In some of the towns there is paid parking and it’s the ladies who collect the revenue. On two occasions they have been given their marching orders by the ‘spectators’ because they can see that the vehicle is a piki piki and not a car. It’s going to be a short day’s ride and we’re feeling on top of the world. Not just literally. We are climbing steadily and without warning we are met with the most amazing spectacle, more than just breathtaking. From the escarpment above the Rift Valley in all it’s glory. (Lonely Planet) The escarpment crashes sheer to the floor of a volcano studded valley hundreds of meters below. If the view could speak it would surely say ‘Welcome to Africa’ We could not describe it better.
With such breathtaking beauty in your own backyard (speaking to Kenyans), you should be humbled. It is a privilege to go to sleep and wake up next to one of the world’s most revered natural sites on a daily basis. We all need to respect and appreciate the gifts nature’s bounty have given us. Better still, we need to ensure that such gifts are preserved for posterity so that future generations can enjoy similar privileges and visitors from the world over can also see them.
By conserving wetlands, we are taking care of a bigger part of the environment other than our immediate surrounding. We are protecting the world from the vagaries of climate change, preserving a natural heritage, and ensuring that our children’s children will be able to stare at golden sunrises across the steaming Rift Valley with the same wonder in their eyes as was in ours…for centuries to come.
imarisha naivasha 