MERU NATIONAL PARK

As you skirt your way through Mount Kenya to the East via Embu and Meru, you will come across a hidden gem, tucked away in Meru and known to the adventurers few.  It is a lovely place to visit in these mountains.  Meru National Park is one of Africa’s most beautiful parks though little visited due to a history of insecurity.  Spirited rehabilitation by the Kenya Wildlife Service and partners over the last couple of years has seen the park become more accessible.

The environment is secure, several wildlife species have been restocked, and it is a favorite safari destination for discerning travelers and wildlife for professionals.  Meru Park vegetation is magnificent.  It is typical Savannah, hot and dry but with plenty of water in the form of fourteen permanent rivers flowing through the park.  This combination breeds a unique vegetation formation that makes the park a haven for photographic safaris. <script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-9770610857642756"

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The park also boasts the Big Five.  It also hosts other northern range wildlife like the Grevy zebra, Beisa oryx, the reticulated giraffe and the lesser kudu.  Hippos and Nile crocodiles  also inhibit the rivers.  Meru’s landscape is made even more spectacular by the numerous rocky outcrops that form habitats for pythons, baboons and leopards.  It is here where Joy and George Adamson released their most famous lioness, Elsa, back into the wild.  The tales are told in the book and film Born Free.  Accommodation ranges form the posh Elsa Kopje tented camp; KWS managed Bandas to several campsites.

ELSA KOPJE COTTAGE

TIMBALI SWAZILAND

Timbali Lodge was founded by the late Pat Forsyth Thompson and his wife, Joy in 1968. Having spent many years as a prisoner of war in World War II, Pat’s indomitable spirit held fast to the mindset of always finding the good in a difficult situation. After the,war,Pat dedicated his life to serving the Swazi nation which he deeply loved and respected.Inaddition to undertaking a number of assignments for the late, great King Sobhusa II,hewas also instrumental in the creation of Malolotja Nature Reserve and the establishment of the Swaziland National Trust.  In the early 1970’s Timbali was a humble caravan park, but over time it has grown to a sunny haven for tourists, visiting business people and local alike.

Timbali lodge is set in a lush garden of indigenous trees and shrubs and the accommodation options range form luxury rooms with showers to executive suites with showers and spa baths.  All the rooms are furnished with fridges and modernities like telephones, internet links and DSTV.  A new multi functional thatched boma, which can take up to 200 people, is open adding an exciting dimension to the lodge. The boma hosts a variety of functions cabaret, theatre, dance, weddings and lavish feasts.  The chef at Timbali specializes in Afro/middle Eastern fusion and traditional dishes and meals for special needs may be ordered. The creation of the Boma restaurant is dedicated to this remarkable man and the inspiration he brought to those fotunate enough to cross his path. For those keen on discovering Swaziland, the chef can prepare a picnic basket or stock up on treats from the on-side coffee shop and delicatessen make a point of visiting the tantalizing Timbali.

MT. KILIMANJARO

 

Tanzania has some of the most spectacular wildlife in the world.  From the great migration to buffalo grazing at the base of the Ngorongoro crater, no one who has been on safari in Tanzania will ever forget it. Tanzania is also the land of pristine rainforest, spectacular mountains and unspoilt coral reefs.  There is more to discover in the heartbeat of Africa than large carnivores.

 

Like large mountains, for instance, Kilimanjaro rises 5,896m above sea level and is Africa ’s highest peak.  In 2 AD Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer wrote of a mysterious lands to the south of Somalia that contained ‘man eating barbarians’ and ‘ a great snow capped mountain’  The man eating barbarians were unaccounted for, but the local Chagga people called the cloud shrouded mountain ‘ Kilema Kyaro’ meaning ‘that which cannot be conquered’ or ‘that which makes a journey impossible’.

 

Well  should you decide to ascend the mountain you will keep having flashbacks of the Lord of the Rings where Frodo and Sam were climbing Mount Doom .  You will imagine, look and smell like those struggling hobbits, equally small and with feet as equally large and cumbersome.  Adding to a growing sense of surrealism is the rapid change of scenery.  Kilimanjaro has five ecosystems from foothill to summit.  After farmland you enter into rainforest.  The rich damp smell gives way to a drier, earthier fragrance as you pass into heath.  Low lying shrub is interspersed with towering plants like the yellow Senecio flower which grows to five meters!