Aberdare Mountain Range

Located 180 km from Nairobi and is the belief of the traditional Kikuyu that the Aberdare Mountain Range is one of the homes of Ngai, or God. The park offers a wide range of beautiful landscapes - from the mountain peaks that rise to 14,000 feet above sea level, to deep, v-shaped valleys intersected by streams and rivers and waterfalls. The park has a spectacular waterfall, which is Kenya's longest fall of approximately 1,000 feet. Also moorland, bamboo forests and rainforests as one goes down to lower altitudes. Visitors has excellent opportunities for high altitude hiking walking and trout fishing in the rivers and camping in the moorlands. The area is also famous as the 1950s headquarters of the Mau Mau Rebellion, and General Kimathi's hideout is still an attraction within the park.

The forest is home to a multitude of animals like elephant, buffalo, black and white Colobus, Sykes monkey, lion, giant forest hog and the endangered black rhino. The Aberdare National Park contains the second largest population of the Black Rhino in Kenya. The Aberdares are also an excellent area for spotting the elusive leopard and the Bongo antelope. Even the bird viewing is rewarding, with over 250 species of birds in the park, including the Jackson's Francolin, sparry hawk, goshawk, crowned eagle, sunbird and plover.

Aberdare has also some excellent lodges. The Ark, built in the shape of Noah's Ark, and Treetops are both famous lodges in the area. Treetops is one of Kenya's most famous hotels as this is where British Princess Elizabeth was informed that she was now Queen in 1952 when her father died. Game viewing at Treetops is taken so seriously that there is a bell in each room which sounds if an unusual animal turns up at the waterhole.
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