ABERDARE
NATIONAL PARK Area: 767 square kilometers
By Road : 2½-3 hours from Nairobi
By Air: Nearest Airstrip with scheduled flights
is Nanyuki Daily flights Nairobi/Nanyuki/Nairobi
The Aberdare National Park
is part of the Aberdare Mountain Range, a
fascinating region of Kenya. Aberdares was
made famous because it is unique park that
Princess Elizabeth spent the night in a unique
tree hotel and became Queen upon her father's
death. This park is noted for mountain ranges
and peaks that soar to around 14,000 ft giving
way to deep V-shaped valleys with streams
and rivers cascading over spectacular waterfalls
- this area is a must for landscape lovers.
From its vital catchments area the Aberdare
Rainforest feeds the entire local and Nairobi
water supply.
Game found in this forest
are:- Bongo - a rare and elusive forest antelope,
eland, serval cats, elephant, buffalo,
lion, rhino, leopard, baboon, Black and White
Colobus and Sykes monkeys. Rare sightings
have also been made of the Golden cat. Bird
viewing is incredible with over 250 species
recorded including Jackson's Franklin, sparrow
hawk, African goshawk, eagles, sunbirds and
plovers.
MOUNT KENYA Area: 715 square kilometers
By Road: 3 hours from Nairobi
By Air: Nearest Airstrip with scheduled flights
is Nanyuki Daily flights Nairobi/Nanyuki/Nairobi
At 5199m high, Mount Kenya is Africa's second
highest mountain. It offers easy or challenging
ascents with superb scenic beauty. To the
Kikuyu tribes people it is the home of the
Supreme Being: Ngai, a god that resides here.
Part of the mountain's fascination is the
variation in flora and fauna as the altitude
changes. The lower slopes are covered with
dry upland forest, the true montane (mountain)
forest begins at 2000m is mainly cedar and
podo.
At 2500m begins a belt of bamboo forest
which merges into the upper forest of smaller
trees, interspersed with glades. The high
altitude heath at the top (3000-3500m)
is generally open, dotted with shrubs,
African sage, protea and helicrysum. Animals
found here are Sunni buck, Mount Kenya
mole, shrew, skinks (lizard) and variety
of owls. Occasional sightings have been
recorded of albino zebra.
MERU NATIONAL PARK Area: 870 square kilometers
By Road : 8 hours from Nairobi
By Air: Nairobi/Meru/Nairobi, accessible by
scheduled flight on Sun/Wed/Fri
The
Park is most famous as it is the setting
for Joy Adamson's book "Born Free" -
the story of the Adamson's life and research
amongst lion and cheetah. It is an especially
wild and beautiful area of Kenya, straddling
the equator and bisected by 13 rivers and
numerous mountain-fed streams. It has diverse
scenery - woodlands to wide open plains with
wandering riverbanks dotted with doum palms.
Game includes : lions, elephants, cheetah,
leopard and some of the rarer antelopes,
lesser kudu, duiker, dik dik - one of Africa's
smallest antelopes. The rivers abound with
hippo and crocodile. Over 300 species of
birds have been recorded including - Peter's
Finfoot which inhabits the Murera and Ura
Rivers, the Pel's Fishing Owl, kingfishers,
rollers, bee-eaters, starlings and numerous
weavers.
SAMBURU,
BUFFALO SPRINGS & SHABA NATIONAL
RESERVES Area-(Samburu): 104 square kilometres
Area-(Buffalo Springs): 131 square kilometres
Area-(Shaba): 145 square kilometers
By Road : 5 hours from Nairobi
By Air: Daily Nairobi/Samburu/Nairobi
All three Reserves offer unique vistas of
rounded and rugged hills and undulating plains.
The mix of wood and grassland with riverine
forest and swamp is home to a wide variety
of animal and birdlife. Game viewing and
visibility is excellent. Game includes the
following animals unique to this area - Reticulated
giraffe, Grevy's zebra, Somali ostrich, gerenuk.
Other animals include elephant, oryx, hippo,
crocodile, buffalo, lion, leopard, cheetah
and hyena. Recently (January 2002), in a
radical departure from its instincts, a lioness
protected a baby oryx, which it would ordinarily
have killed for a meal, escorting it around
the Samburu wildlife reserve. Unfortunately
the oryx fell prey to another lion and was
killed. The same lion adopted another baby
oryx a few days later, however the Kenya
Wildlife Society had to intervene as the
oryx was too weak to survive and they separated
the couple…. is this the end or will
the tale continue? Shaba National Reserve,
known as the "Born Free" country
is a semi desert reserve, located some 100
kms north of the equator, was made famous
by Joy Adamson and her lioness Elsa. The
park is also notable for its hotsprings.
LAIKIPIA GAME SANCTUARY Area: 800,000 hectares
By Road : 7-8 hours from Nairobi
By Air: Accessible by private charters
The Laikipia plateau in Central Kenya is
the last stronghold of romantic East Africa
with vast open ranches, shadowed by snow-capped
Mount Kenya and home to many communities
including the Laikipia Maasai and the Samburu.The
plains are fed by the Ewaso Ny'iro and the
Ewaso Narok rivers and one can often see
the "Big 5" (rhino, elephant, lion,
leopard, buffalo). The district is also a
home to endangered animals such as the black
rhino, Jackson's Hartebeest and more. It
also boasts the biggest herds of elephant
outside the National Parks. Wild dog, leopard,
lion, cheetah and other predators hunt the
plains game such as impala, gazelle, reticulated
giraffe, Grevy zebra, Somali ostrich, Beisa
oryx (endemic to the North of Kenya) and
gerenuk.
LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK Area: 188 square kilometers
By Road : 4-5 hours from Nairobi
It is world famous for, and was created
a National Park to protect, its stunning
flocks of lesser flamingo which literally
turn its shores pink. Its birdlife is world-renowned
and offers over 400 species of both aquatic
and terrestrial birds. The park offers a
wide ecological diversity, from lake water,
woodland to the rocky escarpment and ridges.
Notable game within the park includes: Black
and White Rhino, buffalo, leopard, lion,
Rothschild's giraffe, White and Black Colobus
monkey, eland, steinbok, impala, Chandlers
Reedbuck, dik dik, rock hyrax, klipspringer,
hippo and clawless otter.
MASAI MARA GAME RESERVE Area: 1,510 square kilometers
By Road : 4-5 hours from Nairobi
By Air: Twice daily Nairobi/Mara/Nairobi, once
daily Nanyuki/Masai Mara, once daily Mombasa/Nairobi,
once daily Samburu/Masai Mara
The park is probably the most famous and
most visited reserve in Kenya. The terrain
consists of vast stretches of uninterrupted
plains on the eastern side and as you go
further the savannah spotted with acacia
woodlands gives way to a more varied landscape
with hills and mountains. The park is teeming
with wildlife and the mostly permanent water
network from the Mara-Talek rivers provides
the animals with a year round supply of water.
The most spectacular feature is the annual
migration of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle
from the plains of Serengeti that cross
the Tanzanian border and rivers to reach
the Mara's grasslands from late June, tracked
by predators: lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena
and circled by vultures as the journey
unfolds, the migration provides a game viewing
experience that is not equaled anywhere else
in Africa. Though the seasonal migration,
game viewing is excellent year round. Game
includes :- elephant, Black Rhino, buffalo,
wildebeest, Burchell's zebra, hartebeest,
various antelope and gazelle, lion, leopard,
giraffe, elephant cheetah, hippo, crocodile
and much more.
AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK Area: 392 square kilometers
By Road : 4-5 hours from Nairobi
By Air: Once daily Nairobi/Amboseli/Nairobi
Amboseli means "A place of water",
is situated at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Despite its sometimes dry and dusty appearance,
the park has an endless water supply filtered
through thousands of feet of volcanic rock
from Kilimanjaro's snow melt. The landscape
is open and bushy savannah dotted with thickets
and some acacias. It is an important rangeland
in Maasai culture.
The park offers a wide
variety of wildlife but the principal attraction
is its vast herds of elephant within the
park. The bull elephants here have some
of the largest tusks in Kenya. Other game
includes: zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, impala,
leopard, caracal and serval cat. The park
boasts a rich bird life such as ibis, egret,
avocet, common and saddle-billed stork, secretary
bird, heron, vultures, ducks, and geese.
TSAVO EAST NATIONAL PARK Area: 11,747 square kilometers
By Road : 6-7 hours from Nairobi
One of Kenya's largest National Parks, covering
approx. 40 per cent of the total area of
all Kenya's National Parks. It's beautiful
landscape and proximity to the coast makes
it a popular safari destination. Bushy grassland
and open plains alternate with savannah and
semi-arid acacia scrub and woodlands. The
Yatta plateau is the world's largest lava
flow.
Game include : elephant, rhino, lion,
leopard, crocodile, waterbuck, kudu, gerenuk
and zebra. It is a home to some of the
largest herds of elephants in Kenya. 500
bird species are recorded including ostrich
and some migratory kestrels and buzzards
stop at Tsavo-East during their long flight
south.
TSAVO WEST NATIONAL PARK Area: 9,065 square kilometers
By Road : 6-7 hours from Nairobi
This
is where the notorious "Man Eaters
of Tsavo", man-eating lions preyed on
the railway linesman building the great Uganda
railway in 1900. The park has important historic
connections as a major battleground in World
War I where British and German troops battled
for supremacy. It offers tremendous views
with diverse habitats ranging from mountains,
river forest, plains, lakes and wooded grassland.
Game include: cheetah, leopard, buffalo,
rhino, elephant, giraffe, zebra, lion, plains
game, crocodile and small mammals including
mongoose, hyrax, dik dik and the nocturnal
porcupine.
Mzima springs is a star attraction,
a pool of natural spring water with underwater
viewing hides for observing hippos.Chyulu
Hills National Park is an extenstion of Tsavo
West National Park. The Chyulus are a volcanic
mountain range with a mix of volcanic cones
and barren lava flows, of which the most
interesting in Shetani, meaning "Devil" in
Swahili. Game include: buffalo, zebra, giraffe,
oryx, lion, leopard and many species of birds
and plants.
The
perfect place for a beach holiday and some
of the finest deep-sea fishing in the
world. The history of the coastline goes
back over a thousand years. The Indian Ocean
coastline that forms the Eastern border stretches
for some four hundred and eighty kilometers
from Somali to Tanzania with palm fringed
pearly white sandy beaches. Extending from
North to South lies a spectacular coral
barrier reef with wonders of under water
exploration in the blue lagoons and creeks.
These attractions together with superb accommodation
facilities make the Kenya Coast an incomparable
holiday for both beach and nature lovers.
It is possible to swim in the warm clear
waters of the Indian Ocean all year round.
The Kenya coast is divided into distinct
resorts, namely:- Mombasa, North & South
Coast, Malindi and Watamu, and Lamu each
having its own unique characteristics and
attractions.
Mombasa has a harmonious blending of the
great cultures of Africa, Asia and Europe.
The Old Town with its narrow streets with
fascinating place of antiquity worth seeing.
The 16th century Fort Jesus is a major attraction.
The North Coast and South Coast are long
stretches of idyllic beaches that are fringed
with swaying palms, casuarinas, oleanders
and frangipan. The Mtwapa creek with its
abundant birdlife and Bamburi nature trail
on the north are a must for nature lovers.
Diani/Chale Marine National Park and Reserve,
Kisite Marine National Park are places
with a dazzling array of technicoloured fish
and coral gardens which are worth visiting.
Malindi & Watamu are renown for its beauty
and diversity of marine life. Malindi's history
dates back to the 12th century. Here time
stands still and centuries of civilization
have not altered the courtesy and charm of
the people. The Gede ruins are a few kilometers
from Malindi and are a fascinating glimpse
of Islamic culture and village life. The
ruins were mysteriously abandoned in the
17th century.
Lamu takes one back through time to a way
of life that has remained unchanged for
the last six hundred years and here time
seems to standstill. The Lamu archipelago
is the Venice of Kenya as it is linked to
the mainland and other smaller islands such
as Manda and Kiwayu by waterways