The Aberdare National Park was created in 1950 to protect the forested slopes and moors of the Aberdare Mountains. While the park has elephant, lion, rhino, black leopard and the beautiful but elusive bongo antelope, it is rarely visited by safari companies and individual travellers. There are a number of reasons for this, one is that the high rainfall turns the roads to mudslides and you need a 4×4 to get anywhere, and as a result the park often closes in the wet season. Added to this is the dense forest, which makes game viewing tricky. Lastly, other than campsites with minimal facilities, the only accommodation is at two very expensive tree lodges.

Having said that, the lodges are also the main attraction of the Aberdares. Both Treetops and The Ark are built above the ground beside floodlit waterholes with salt licks. Visitors must book in advance and cannot make their own way to the lodges in private vehicles. Instead check-in is at the Aberdare Country club for The Ark and the Outspan Hotel for Treetops and they bus you to the lodge. Treetops is one of Kenya’s most famous hotels as this is where British Princess Elizabeth was informed that she was now Queen in 1952 when her father died. The Ark, however, offers better game viewing, especially at night.

Nocturnal game viewing is taken so seriously that there is a bell in each room which sounds if an unusual animal turns up at the waterhole. Elephant, buffalo, rhino, leopard and bushbuck are regular visitors. The hotel is reached via a gangway which takes you to the level of the forest top.

Posted on July 30th, 2007 by Katfish
Filed under: Africa