Aberdare is the safari most visitors to Kenya never take, and the one they talk about most when they do. This is highland Kenya: cedar and bamboo forest, waterfalls dropping off moorland plateaus, and wildlife viewing done not from a vehicle but from the deck of a lodge built over a floodlit waterhole.
A Different Kind of Game Viewing
The centrepiece of this itinerary is a night at The Ark, the famous tree-lodge overlooking a natural salt lick deep inside Aberdare National Park. Elephant, buffalo, giant forest hog and bushbuck come to you through the night, and a buzzer system in every room means you can ask to be woken if something special appears: a black rhino, or with real luck the near-mythical bongo antelope. It is the best night-viewing arrangement anywhere in Kenya.
Waterfalls and Moorland
On the middle day we drive the park's high circuit. Karuru Falls drops nearly 300 metres in three steps off the moorland edge, and the landscape up here, tussock grass, giant heather and lobelia at 3,000 metres, feels closer to the Scottish Highlands than to the savannah two hours below. Colobus monkeys crash through the canopy on the forest tracks and the air is cool enough for a fireside dinner.
Who This Safari Suits
Aberdare pairs beautifully with a classic plains safari: many of our guests run these three days before a Mara or Samburu circuit for the contrast. It is also the easiest wildlife-rich escape from Nairobi for travellers short on time, with the park gate under three hours from the city. Roads are all-weather but the forest is at its greenest from June to March, outside the long rains.
