KISUMU'S WILDLIFE: NDERE ISLAND NATIONAL PARK

Ndere Island National park is a small Island (4.2 km sq.) in Winam golf of Lake Victoria in Kenya. Ndere Island officially designated and gazette as a National Park, The locals call it Chula Rabour-Chula meaning Island and Rabour-red thus Red Island. It is called so because virtually all its top surface with Themeda grass species, whose mature flowers are reddish in colour. Thus in large and dense masses they give the island a close red tinge and thus its name.
WHAT TO SEE AND DO
THE ROLLING HOMA HILL AND BEYOND
Dotted with walking trails offers beautiful scenery with distant panoramic view of Homa hill on its South; its sister island Magere Island, the Lake Victoria and the imagination of Kampala beyond the south western horizon.
The air and the lake breeze leaves one with a feeling of freshness and buoyancy that you will feel like being on top on top of the world. Many of the Ndere Island visitors go there for scenic viewing, hiking, team building, bird watching, traditional boat rides in the local fishing boats, picnics and generally outdoor fun of being wild.
REALM FOR BIRD WATCHERS
Ndere’s birds are abundant and colorful; common water birds include: African Fish Eagle, Hammer Kop and Goliath Heron.
At times when insects are breeding within the last three months of the year, one can be amazed by the frivolous activity of dense masses of Swifts, like mosquitoes, swooping and rising as they feed on flight. The diversity of birds both singing and warders is great.
BOAT RIDES
Boat rides using community boats are organized around the island and other areas of visitor’s interest. Other boat rides can be conducted to cover the nearby sister Islands.
SPORT FISHING AND GAME VEIWING
This is one of the activities visitors enjoy undertaking while touring the park as it brings them into close contact with the local fishing community. The touch is so thrilling that one gets the true feeling of a local fisherman as they try to compete for the biggest catch near the Island shore line.
Hippos and spotted Crocodiles take cool dives in the sheltered harbors of the Island. If you are lucky you will see both and possibly  the monitor lizards that live here alongside the rare semi aquatic antelope’s wadind through the papyrus reeds of the Island shorelines.
Herds of Impalas can be spotted in the predominantly grassy areas of the Island.