Aberdares National Park

The Aberdare National Park comprises an area of 590 sq. kms. This includes the moorlands and part of the forest of the Aberdare Mountains. The mountains are part of the central highlands and rise up to an altitude of approximately 12,900 feet. The slopes are heavily covered with forest and deep ravines through which hidden trout streams flow and waterfalls cascade. Above the forest stretch miles of open moorlands and hills.

Animals commonly seen include elephant and Rhino who frequent water holes and salt licks as well as the Giant Forest Hog, Colobus Monkey and above all Leopard.

Bird life is also abundant and varied, the most conspicuous being the sunbirds.

Amboseli National Park

Amboseli National Park is a landscape dominated everywhere by the glistening, majestic snowcap of Kilimanjaro – a fitting backdrop to a wild region. It covers only 392 sq km but despite its small size and its fragile eco-system, it supports a wide range of mammals and birds. It is also the region where pastoral Maasai and their cattle have lived in harmony with wild creatures for many a century. The snows of Kilimanjaro, white and crystalline, form a majestic backdrop to one of Kenya’s most spectacular displays of wildlife, creating Kenya’s most sought after photographer’s paradise.

Amboseli is known for its abundance of elephants as well as hippopotamus, giraffe, lion and black rhino. Venture in search of the great herds with the Magnificent Mt Kilimanjaro looming in the background.

Lake Baringo & Lake Bogoria National Reserve

Lake Baringo, a fresh water lake in the Rift, is a peaceful oasis in the dry thorn country, bursting with bird life and with a captivating characteristic of its own.
L Baringo possesses two major ornithological attractions: the Gibraltar Island with the largest nesting colony of Goliath Herons in East Africa and the escarpment immediately west of Campi ya Samaki on the western side of the lake. It is the home of Verreaux's Eagle, rare Bristle crowned Starling and Hemprich's Hornbill. Apart from birds, the lake houses a sizeable population of crocodile's and hippos.

Lake Bogoria National Reserve is in the Rift Valley near Baringo. The reserve includes the entire Lake Bogoria and its immediate surrounds. It is a region of great scenic beauty.
To the east, steep hills descend abruptly to the lake shore whilst a series of furious, spectacular hot springs erupt on the western, flatter shores. The region is best known for the Greater Kudu and the large concentrations of flamingos which often frequent the lake.

Lake Nakuru National Park

Lake Nakuru seasonally hosts millions of flamingoes that turn the
shores of the lake pink. The parkland surrounding the lake fringed with swamps, has acacia and euphorbia forests as well as areas of grassland and rocky cliffs. The park hosts a rhino sanctuary as well as animals such as waterbucks, leopards and Rothschild giraffe.

Masai Mara National Reserve

Masai Mara – The sights, sounds, colors and spectacle that spell Africa. The Masai Mara National Reserve covers some 1,672 sq km. It is an extension of Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. This is a land of short grasses, where the wind plays with the thick, green mantle after the rains and nine months later, whips up dust devils from the baked surface.

Everything is big in Mara. It is a country of breath-taking vistas, a panorama of vast rolling plains and rounded hills, of intermittent groves of acacia woodlands and dense thickets of scrub. The Mara River and its tributaries which are margined by luxuriant riverine forest bisect the whole. And in every direction there are seemingly endless herds of game animals.

Masai Mara is the most popular of Kenya’s parks and world famous for its vast assemblages of plains game together with their associated predators, its breathtaking beauty of its grassland savannah and the drama of its great migrating herds. Mara possesses the largest population of lions to be found in Kenya. Among thze great variety of large beasts are Buffalo, Black Rhino and Hippopotamus. Other mammals include Leopard, Cheetah, Common Zebra, Coke’s Hartebeest, White-bearded Gnu, Oribi, Warthog and Thomson’s and Grant’s Gazelles. The bird life of Mara is as profuse as its mammalian fauna.

Mount Kenya National Park

Mount Kenya is Africa’s second highest mountain. It is also unexpectedly different and therefore too good to miss. The combination of its altitude and its position astride the Equator results in the formation of vegetation like water holding cabbage, ostrich plume plant, and giant groundsel that exists only here and at very few other lofty points in East Africa.

Bation and Nelion, twin peaks of the mountain dominate Mount Kenya National Park. The vegetation of the park from bottom to top is as follows: rich and sub alpine flora to bamboo forests, moorlands and tundra. In the lower forest and bamboo zones roam the giant forest hog, tree hyrax, white tailed mongoose, elephant, suni, duiker and leopard. The high altitude bamboo forest is infested with mighty gorges, sylvan glades and trout streams. Up in the moorlands are the hyrax, duiker and Mount Kenya mouse shrews. Higher altitudes host the fairly common mole rats and the very rare golden cat.

Samburu, Buffalo Springs & Shaba National Reserves

Samburu National Reserve is set up around the richest stretch of Ewaso Nyiro River in the hot and arid fringes of the vast Northern region of Kenya. It covers an area of 104 sq kms. Here, permanent water supply and forest shade ensure the existence of plentiful wildlife in the Reserve. The main attractions are the resident wildlife species like the Reticulated Giraffe, Grevy’s Zebra, Beisa Oryx and the blue-necked Somali Ostrich that are rare elsewhere in the country.

Buffalo Springs National Reserve is separated from the Samburu Reserve by the river. It covers an area of 194 sq kms. Here, bird life is strikingly numerous and colorful and it is normal to see well over a hundred species of birds in a single day. Riverine forest of acacia and doulm palm form part of the fauna of the region.

Buffalo Springs National Reserve is separated from the Samburu Reserve by the river. It covers an area of 194 sq kms. Here, bird life is strikingly numerous and colorful and it is normal to see well over a hundred species of birds in a single day. Riverine forest of acacia and doulm palm form part of the fauna of the region.

Tsavo National Park

Tsavo National Park, a vast arid region of 20,812 sq km, is Kenya’s largest wildlife stronghold. It lies roughly halfway between the coast and Nairobi and is bisected by the Mombasa-Nairobi railway and road link. The portion lying north and east of the road is designated as Tsavo East and that to the south and west is known as Tsavo West. Two permanent rivers; the Tsavo River and the Athi River water the Park.

Tsavo West is the more developed part of the park combining good access, good facilities and stunning views over the tall grass and woodland scenery. The chief marvel here is the Mzima Springs, replenished with two hundred and twenty million litres of crystal clear water everyday, from the underground streams stemming from the lava massif known as Chyulu Hills. Mzima Springs is a favorite haunt of hippos and crocodiles. There are well-marked nature trails, an observation platform and an underwater glass tank, which provides a special vantage point to view this remarkable oasis.

Not far from Mzima Springs lies the precipitous magnificence of the Ngulia escarpment at the foot of the Ngulia Hills. Ngulia has become the base of a unique phenomenon from late September to November. Attracted by the lights of Ngulia Lodge, hundreds of thousands of European birds commence their annual Southern migration and the lodge is their stopover

The lava that purifies Mzima’s water can be seen in black outcrops all around this part of Tsavo. The Shetani lava flow is a spectacular example. The caves here are worthy of investigation.

Tsavo East is the larger and much less visited site of the park. One of the interesting aspects here is the Yatta Plateau, one of the world’s longest lava flows. An additional attraction is the Lugard Falls, a long stretch of rippling water cataracts formed by the Athi River. The Falls gush through a small fissure before dropping to Crocodile Point below – a favorite haunt for sunbathing crocodiles.

Elephants in large herds are the number one attraction at Tsavo. Other animals likely to be encountered are Buffalo, Common waterbuck, Eland, Gerenuk, Fringe-eared Oryx, Impala and Masai giraffe. Bird life too is legion in the park.