Aberdares National Parks

The Aberdares is the established name of a beautiful mountain range in the central highlands of Kenya.

Within these mountains is the Aberdare National Park (766km/295m) a fairly tale place of dense forest, misty moorlands and alpine plants, where icy rivers plunge in glorious cascades and waterfalls. The area is rich in wildlife.

The salient stretching out towards the nearby town of Nyeri, was once an elephant migration route, not used today. These great animals remain within the park, together with buffalo, a wide variety of antelope, giant forest hog and the elusive bongo. Tacazze and Malachite sunbird, mountain buzzard and african goshawk are found in this area, where the birdlife is abundant and varied.

This park essentially encloses the moorland and high forest of the 60km long Kinangop plateau along with an eastern salient reaching down to the lower slopes in the vicinity of Nyeri. Only rarely does this park ever feature in the itineraries of safari companies and its even less visited by individual travellers.

The park offers a variety of fauna, flora and scenery which you wont find elsewhere except perhaps, Mt. Kenya. there are also the dramatic Gura falls which drop a full 300 meters, thich forest, alpine moorland and a slim chance of seeing a bongo, black leopard, elephant and Rhino. tthere are also hundreds of species of birds. the major plus about Aberdares National Park is that you'll never feel part of the safari-bus gravy train as you can often expect with other popular parks in Kenya.

GETTING THERE

Aberdares National Park is readily accessible on tarmac from Nyeri and Naro Moru on the eastern side (160 kms from Nairobi). A road crosses the park to connect with another from Naivasha and North Kinangop on the west. Mweiga Airstrip, next to the park headquarters or Nyeri Airstrip which is 12 km from Mweiga headquarters.

MAJOR ATTRACTIONS