Kijabe – Naivasha
One of the classic cross country paragliding flights from Kijabe is to go to Naivasha.
Rainy season is approaching in March before it gets full swing in April. Rift Valley is dusty brown dry. Even the highlands lose their lush greenery before the rains. Despite the dry ground, the approaching humid airmasses make cloud bases lower and cloud tops higher. Still, Kenyan great air mass transformations continue. In this particular day (13 March), clouds started early, at about 10 am. Then it looked like overdeveloping, cloudbase was 3700, but in the afternoon big clouds dissolved and cloudbase rose to about 4500. Similar daily boundary layer transformations happen daily in the Janiary – March dry season elsewhere. Nights are clear, then at sunrise clouds form and cover hills near Isiolo, Mutitu, Tala. Then at launch they dissolve and sky becomes epic with cloud bases 2500-3000 meters and higher in drier areas.
At the end of the dry season, the prevailing North Easterly winds weaken, allowing upslope thermals give take off window for Kijabe. The proper climbs to the cloudbase are embeded in the rear stagnation line of the smoothly conical Kijabe hill. Then it’s easy with many opportunities for interesting paragliding flights.
The classics are going to Narok across Longonot volcano crated and Hell’s Gate NP. Or going to Naivasha, but beware the lake breeze which killa surrounding thermals. The terraces NE of Naivasha can also experience breeze effect at their edges despite looking good for ridge soaring and thermal triggering.