Aberdare Mountains and The Ark

July 23, 2021

Even though the Aberdare Mountains have national park status here in Kenya, many safari goers miss out on a visit to this unique ecosystem. And those that do come mostly get a look at one waterhole and call it good. There is more than meets the eye in this park, and our group was up for exploring it in multiple ways.

After a hectic drive (even for us passengers) through Nairobi's infamous traffic, we made it to the Aberdare Country Club. Boasting an 18 hole golf course, spotted with wildlife, this gated area seems out of place on the outskirts of Nyeri town. The buildings are made of stone and carry a certain colonial vibe to the architecture. The lunch spread was quite nice, the view over the grounds even better, and colorful birds like fire finches and cordon blues played in the bird bath. Sarah B, Rod, Amy, and I went for a walk along the golf course after lunch to see what animals we could spot. The course was a bit overgrown and hard to follow numerically, but we managed to see herds of impala, wart hogs, zebra, and one big eland. After an hour we loaded up on the club's bus, which we had completely to ourselves, then headed into the park to go to our lodge called, the Ark.

We stopped for animals a few times on our short drive in, and barely missed a leopard (the car in front of us had seen it cross and run into the bushes), and checked giant forest hogs off our wildlife checklist. We were met out front of the ark by a group of men who helped with the luggage. After finding our rooms we dashed to the waterhole overlook. There are three levels to watch from, a hide that is below ground level, a ground level view behind glass, and an over the top view that is open. A family of elephants was snacking on the salty ground near the waterhole, only a few dozen feet away from us in the hide. A mother hyena with two playful cubs also bounded into view.

One special part of staying at the Ark, is that they will buzz your room if any special animal visits the water hole during the night. We didn't get buzzed this night, although I did go and check myself around 3am just to make sure. It was pretty quiet except for a few spotted genets running around the rocks just outside the hide. I even saw one dip into the hide at one point before quickly scampering back out.

The next morning we had a very relaxing breakfast, sharing the big dining room with only six other guests. The elephants were back at the watering hole, along with some buffalo and another forest hog. The boardwalk out front of the Ark turned out to be a fabulous place for birdwatching, with a few species of beautiful sunbirds spotted going from flower to flower. Right at 9am we checked out and found James waiting for us outside the lodge. He had spent the night with his mother in Nyeri town, which turns out to be the town where he grew up. He told us a story about sneaking into the mountains to tease the young buffalo into chasing him but they could never catch him in the bush.

We spent the morning and early afternoon driving up to the 10,000ft top of the Aberdare Mountains. It was pretty dense forest on the way up but then around 9,500ft we busted through the tree layer and into the open vastness of the moors. We stopped at the Chania waterfall for a little hike down to the bottom. Then James took us to another waterfall down a crazy muddy road that I had never been too. I was too busy jumping out of the bushes and growling to scare Sarah B. that I missed the turnoff to the waterfall. We ended up walking miles down a road that would have eventually led to a fishing camp that I'm sure noone had been to in ages. We eventually turned back and found the turnoff literally right down from the parking lot. James had been a bit worried but all was good and we scored a nice hike in the process. Luckily we didn't run across any forest elephants or grump old bull buffalo along the road.

After that we descended off the other side of the Aberdare mountains. We drove through a torrential downpour and into our next destination of Nakuru. I had us holed up at the Eastmark Hotel which turned out to be not as good as I had hoped. But seeing the roads of Nakuru turn into rushing rivers was definitely a sight. Chalk it up to another wild day on safari.