Into the Aberdare Mountains, Kenya

October 25, 2018

After a leisurely morning at Acacia Camp and a delicious breakfast of sausages and omlettes, we loaded back into our vehicle for a morning drive North to our next destination in the Aberdare Mountains. This route takes us through the capital city of Nairobi, and all of its infamous traffic. But with James at the helm we knew we were in good hands. That wasn't taking into account some of the other drivers as we got into my first accident ever in Kenya.

In almost stand still traffic one of the matatu public transport vans rammed into us from behind. Luckily our safari LandCruiser is built like a tank. The impact rubbed off some of the spare tire cover of ours, while doing quite a bit of damage to the little van. Since we had no real damage we quickly got underway again. We were trying to make it to the Aberdare Country Club by 2:30pm in time for lunch.

Waterhog babies!

The landscape really started shifting from dry arid shrublands to fertile farmlands and then lush mountains. Kenya's highest mountain, Mt. Kenya could be seen, snow capped, poking up through the clouds off to our right. Greenhouses filled with roses lined the road north. Just after driving through the town of Nyeri, we saw the sign for the Aberdare Country Club. It pointed down this very rough dirt road going through small ramshackle buildings that are typical everywhere near cities in Kenya.

Our room at the Ark

waterhole overlook

Just after 2:30 we pulled through the gates of the Aberdare Country Club. You would never expect such a fancy place at the end of this bumpy dirt road, so the group was very surprised. As we drove in we could see reticulated giraffes, impala, and a warthog family with little babies munching on the grass of the golf course. The lunch was a fantastic buffett in a classic British colonial patio setting under a bright purple blooming jacaranda tree.

The Ark

Deedee, Erica, and Becca at the Ark

After lunch we jumped into their bus heading into the Aberdare National Park for our final destination of the day, the Ark. This lodge is really one of a kind. From the outside it resembles a big boat, perhaps like Noah's Ark. Inside it has a the feel of a cozy ski lodge complete with fire and bar.

But the real draw of the Ark is the floodlit waterhole and salt lick located just outside. There are three levels of balconies to sit and watch the animal action from, as well as a hidden hide down on ground level that you can get very close to the action in.

One quote about the pillbox-like hide I found states, "In this intimate recess one can almost, but not quite, pat the animals, hear their sounds and smell the aroma of the night. This is a magical corner, where there is close contact with the essence that tells of an unexplored Africa, and where, very often, the visitor may enjoy in solitary state the beauty of it all."- Monty Brown's book, Haven Under the Hill

We had the rarely encountered forest hogs at the waterhole, plus lots water buffalo, elephants, and bushbuck. A group of hyena played around the far end of the waterhole but became very noisy just outside of our window in the wee hours of the morning. A white tailed mongoose was another nocturnal visitor that we saw here. The ark has buzzers in each room that will ring once for elephants, twice for a black rhino, three times for a leopard, or four times for something truly unique visiting the waterhole. So you can go to sleep confident that you won't miss anything special through the night.

For most people, a visit to the Ark is the full extent of their Aberdare Mountain National Park experience. But we wanted to explore this lush, cool, mountain park a bit deeper. So we met up with James the next morning and headed up through the park to the high elevation moors. We passed sykes monkeys and a black and white colobus monkey. We saw a lone forest elephant and quite a few water buffalo. But the two big highlights were a leopard crossing the road in front of us, and the Chania waterfall.

At the waterfall we were able to walk down a path to the base of the falls. Everyone relished in the cool temperatures after being in the hot and muggy parts of Kenya before this.

Forest hogs with a tiny baby

yellow vented bulbul

We explored quite a bit of the park during our short time here. We soaked up as much of the cool lush climate as we could before heading back down and out of the Aberdare Mountains. Our next stop...a trout and monkey experience at the Trout Tree Restaurant!