Aberdare National Park

Background

Aberdare National Park came into existence in May 1950 with the objective of protecting the forested moors and slopes of the Great Aberdare Mountains. The Park covers an area of 766 sq km and occupies the elevated zones of the Aberdare Mountain Range in central Kenya and the Aberdare Salient to their east.

Aberdare National Park Overview

Aberdare National Park is located100km north of Nairobi and stretches over a wide diversity of landscape. It covers an altitude ranging between 2,100m and 4,300m above sea level. The park contains a wide range of landscapes – from the mountain peaks that rise to 4,300m above sea level, to their deep, v-shaped valleys overlapped by rivers, Streams and waterfalls. Bamboo forests, Moorland and rainforests are found at lower altitudes. There is a traditional belief among the Kikuyu that the Aberdare Mountain Range, where this park is situated, is one of the homes of Ngai- or God.

Wildlife in Aberdare

The natural world can easily be observed and includes baboons, lions, leopards, black and white Colobus monkeys, plus sykes monkeys. Others viewable animals include those of the golden cat and the bongo – a beautiful forest antelope that lives in the bamboo forest. Animals like the eland and spotted and melanistic serval cats can be found higher up in the moorlands.

Aberdare National Park boasts with a large concentration of black rhino. Bird viewing is also gratifying. The Park takes pride in over 250 bird species, including the endangered eagles, Jackson’s Francolin, goshawks, Aberdare Cisticola, sparry hawk and sunbirds.

Accommodation in Aberdare

Visitors to the park can find different types of accommodation according to their preference, ranging from the Treetops tree-house lodge, to the Ark – built in the shape of Noah’s Ark – and three self-help banda sites, eight special campsites and a public campsite in the moorland. There are also five picnic sites. Both Treetops and The Ark are built above the ground beside floodlit waterholes with salt licks. The Ark, however, offers better game viewing, especially at night. Nocturnal game viewing is taken so seriously round these parts that there is a bell alarm in all room which sounds if an unusual animal turns up at the waterhole.

The lodges are one of the chief attractions of the Aberdares. Instead check-in is at the Aberdare Country club for The Ark and the Outspan Hotel for Treetops, from where guests are bussed to their respective lodges. Visitors can book in advance but do not make their own way to the lodges in private vehicles

Aberdare National Park also includes two airstrips; one at Nyeri and the other at Mweiga.