Kenya

The Aberdares National Park

Gazetted in 1950, this park is one of the oldest in the country and famous as the place where Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II of England whilst staying in the original Treetops Lodge.  Whilst it's prize inhabitant is the Bongo Antelope, it is also home to the second largest population of indigenous balck rhino and features miles of high moorland scenery, tumbling waterfalls and sensational views.

Amboseli National Park

Amboseli provides the classic Hollywood image of Africa: vast herds of buffaloes and elephants ranging across the open plains and set against the glorious backdrop of a snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro.  At 5,896 metres, the 'Shining Mountain' is the highest freestanding mountain in the world and is topped by one fifth of all the ice in Africa.

Hell's Gate National Park

Hell's Gate is one of the few remaining places in Kenya where you can walk unguided and it's principal feature is the Njorowa Gorge, the ancient outlet for Lake Naivasha, long since dried up and now famous for it's huge eroded cliffs.

Lake Nakuru National Park

Lake Nakuru is famous for the flocks fo lesser flamingoes, which frost it's blue shores sugar pink.  It also plays host to over 400 species of bird life, being second only to Lake Baringo as the most prolific ornithological site in Kenya.

Maasai Mara National Park

Often described as the greatest of nature's stages, the Maasai Mara, with it's huge dramatic skies, is perhaps the most popular of all Kenya's game parks.  The landscape, which is mostly savannah, hosts around 22 families of lions and 3,000 elephants while the Mara Rive is one of the best places to observe crocodiles and hippos.

Mt. Elgon National Park

Mt Elgon, known as the 'loniliest park in Kenya' is also one of the most impressive, with vast areas of untouched forest concealing over 400 elephants whose most famous gathering place is the bat-filled Kitum Cave to which the troop nightily to forage for salt.

Mt. Kenya National Park

Home to the highest (5,199m) mountain in Kenya, Mt Kenya National Park contrasts warm savannahs with glaciers and snowstorms.  Both the Kikuyu and Masai regard the montain as the home of their supreme being, Ngai, and is also one of only a small number of great mountains whose summit (point Lenana, the 3rd highest peak) is accessible to non-climbers.

The Samburu and Shaba Reserves

The Samburu, 250 miles north of Nairobi, is set in the lands of the colourful Samburu pastrolists.  The Shaba National Reserve is rugged wilderness featuring bubbling hot springs, rolling savannah, miles of scrub and desert and the Ewaso Nyiro River which supports a diversity of wildlife to include not only elephants, leopards and lion but also the rare Grevy's zebra.

Tsavo East and Tsavo West

Tsavo East is a true wilderness and evokes vivid memories of of Africa's forgotten grandeur.  Encompassing miles of arid plains, savannah and scrubland and sheltering over 8,000 elephants. Tsavo west also offers a glorious diversity of habitats but the biggest attraction in Mzima springs, a fount of cool clear water that gushes hundreds of miles from below Mt Kilimanjaro to burst out, at the rate of 250 million litres a day, from the rocks at Mzima.