Kenya

ABERDARE NATIONAL PARK

The Aberdares retain an air of mystery and it would be easy to get lost amongst its thickly wooded hills, and mountains, the highest of which reaches to a lofty 14,000 feet (4,267 meters).  The mountain air is rare and crisp and Aberdare Rainforest is a vital water catchments supplying the whole of Nairobi.  Water cascades over spectacular waterfalls, and into rivers swimming with trout.  Aberdare National Park is famous for its tree-house hotels.  Treetops and the Ark.  With walkways accommodations raised into the forest canopy, you can watch animals from a unique vantage point.  Positioned near waterholes, and salt licks, animals provide constant entertainment and seem undisturbed by the curious visitors, some of whom stay up all  night to catch sightings of shy animals by floodlight.  There is even a viewing  place dug below ground with windows level with the waterhole, where elephants feet come within inches of your face.  A trip to the treetop lodges of the Aberdares is quite unique and the rooms have a bell system, to wake you up for particularly good sightings, whereupon you can go out to the viewing decks or just peer out of your window,  for example a leopard may warrant two rings, while a hyena might only get one ring.  Elephants dominate the waterholes and salt licks and when the lions and hyenas want a drink they have to content with elephants seeing them off at great speed.  Leopards are shy and are best seen under the night-time floodlight.  The National Park area is 296 miles (767km)The  dry season is January - March, dry and hot.  Daytime temperatures are pleasant all year round but it gets colder day and night during the dry winter months.

SWEETWATER’S  GAME SANCTUARY

At  24,000 acre Sweetwater’s Game Reserve is a private game sanctuary, which is home to Sweetwaters Tented Camp.  From the camp there  are magnificent  views across the plains to the snow-capped peaks of Mount Kenya.  The luxurious thatched-roofed tents overlook a large waterhole, which is floodlit by night providing a haven for thirsty wildlife.  The waterhole offers excellent and secluded game viewing, rarely seen elsewhere. This  game sanctuary is the closest reserve to Nairobi (2.5 hours drive)home to all big five game, and has the highest ratio of  game to area of any park or reserve in Kenya.  Game drives at Sweetwater are indeed a pleasure .  The  Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Information Center, Morani the tame black Rhino and the Visitor’s Center are most informative and should be visited while in the game reserve.

SAMBURU NATIONAL PARK

A place of dust red plains and palm fringed rivers, Samburu National Reserve lies on the fringes of the vast and arid desert once known at the Northern  Frontier District.  Physically dramatic, the 104 sq. km. landscape features rocky battlements, dry riverbeds and thorn scrub.  As for wildlife Samburu offers sanctuary to the endangered Grevy’s Zebra, the rare beisa Oryx and the blue-shanked Somali Ostrich whilst large herds of elephant roam the gaunt hills during the day before returning to bath on the banks of the river in the evening.  It is also famously referred  as the “Born-Free Country”, where Elsa the lioness was brought up by Joy Adamson the wife of George who was a game warden.  Following the death of their mother, Joy became their foster parent bringing them up and later the Born-Free Movie series was produced.  More recently Samburu was also the venue where “Survivor Africa” movie  series was shot.                     

LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK

Lake Nakuru is world famous haunt for flamingos.  This is a beautiful shallow lake just south of the township Nakuru,  surrounded by acacia woodland and rich savannah, Lake Nakuru National Park is a superb example of conservation at work in the wild.  Originally, and is still considered one of the finest ornithological sites in the world, the park also provides sanctuary for Rothschild giraffe, rhino and leopard.

MAASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE

Vast is the name of the game in the Maasai Mara.  The spectacular game reserve with its undulating plains, hills and woodland grooves in the Southeast corner of Kenya, shares its Southern border with Tanzania.  This is lion and elephant country with leopard, cheetah and a recovering population of black rhino.  The Mara is home to several hundreds species of birdlife and is famous for the annual migration of the wildebeest thundering across the southern plains of the Serengeti into the Maasai Mara. 

AMBROSELI

With  snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro every present in the background on a clear day, Ambroseli is justly famous for its big game and scenic beauty.  Kilimanjaro is the highest single mountain in the world and tallest part of Africa.  Game viewing is particularly easy in this park.  There is a permanent concentration of animals in the area centered on the dry salt lake at Ol tukai.  Ambroseli is noted for its dwindling black rhino population, but there are resident herds of elephant, buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe, gazelle and other plains animals.  Cheetahs are frequently seen and there are hippos in the swamp.  Birds are numerous and a special attraction in the lake and marsh areas.

MT. KENYA NATIONAL PARK

Mountain Lodge is located in indigenous forest 7,200 feet up in the foothills of the Mount Kenya National Reserve.  The lodge overlooks a natural waterhole and salt lick surrounded by dense forest.  On a clear day you can see the jagged peaks of Mount Kenya through the trees.  Game is watched from the balconies facing the flood lit waterhole.

TSAVO EAST/WEST NATIONAL PARKS

Combined Tsavo East and West National Parks makes Tsavo one of the world’s largest game sanctuaries covering 13,280 sq. miles or 20,812 sq. km.  Tsavo East is larger and more arid, though less visited.  There are only two permanent rivers in this vast area, the Tsavo which begins its life on Kilimanjaro is greatly supplemented by huge underground river flowing from the Mzima Springs and the Athi in Tsavo East which begins in Nairobi.  Tsavo is home to the largest elephant population despite the poaching of the earlier years.  Amongst the many natural wonders  in this region is the marvel of the Mzima Springs replenished with two hundred and twenty million liters of crystal clear water every day, from the underground streams stemming fro the lava massif known as the Chyulu Hills.