Aberdare national park provides habitat for good number of wildlife including Elephants, leopards, spotted hyenas, black rhinos, olive baboons, warthogs, bushbucks, black and white Colobus monkeys, and rare sightings including the gol Africanden cat, giant forest hog, serval cat, bongo, African wild cat, civet cat and the blue duiker.
The park is characterized by open moorland and steep forested ravines giving it a picturesque beauty! Visitors can engage in trout fishing in the rivers that traverse Aberdare, enjoy picnics and pitch camp in the moorlands. For bird lovers, Aberdare national park offers rewarding bird watching opportunities with over 250 species of birds including Sparrow hawks, eagles, Jackson’s Francolin, sunbirds and plovers.
Park Size
765.7 sq. Km
Activities
Bird watching, Camping, Game Viewing, Horse riding, Photography, Trekking
How to get there
The park can easily be accessed both by road and air.
By Road: The Park can easily be accessed by road – driving on a smooth tarmac road from Nyeri and Naro Moruon the Eastern side. It is 150 kilometers from the capital Nairobi. The road cuts across the park through the lower slopes up to the moorlands to join another one from Naivasha on the western side. It is n 87 kilometers journey to Naivasha from Nairobi.
The park headquarters is 15 kilometers from Nyeri town on the Nyeri – Nyahururu road. That is where you load your safaricard (access pass) from.
By Air: You can fly to the Mweiga Airstrip which is the nearest airstrip for Aberdare national park. Mweiga airstrip is on the opposite side from the park headquarters near Sasin Estate Farm along Nyeri – Nyahururu road.
Attractions
Wildlife; on a game drive in Aberdare national park, there is a great deal of animals that you will encounter including; olive baboon, African Elephant, black rhino, leopard, spotted hyena, black and white colobus monkey, sykes monkey, cape buffalo, warthog, common zebra (North Aberdare), bushbuck, reedbuck. Rare sightings include those of Giant Forest hog, bongo, golden cat, serval cat, African wild cat, African civet cat, blue duiker.
Very beautiful sceneries of Aberdare include magnificent waterfalls with the main ones being Karuru waterfalls which fall in three steps, 1st step 117M, 2nd step 26M and 3rd 130M, making a total of 273M, Chania waterfalls and may other smaller ones.
Adding to the beauty of Aberdare are many ridges and river valleys which attract mountain scenery photographers.
Birds / Bird watching; A recent marked attraction in Aberdare is the 400Kms electric fence which was completed – final post on 28th August, 2009. The fence protects the whole Aberdare ecosystem from human pressures and contains wildlife, preventing human/wildlife conflict.
Visitors can also indulge in picnics, trout fishing (in the past the rivers were stocked with brown rainbow trout) in the rivers and camping in the Moorlands. Bird viewing is rewarding with about 290 recorded bird species, including the Aberdare Cisticola that is critically endangered and the Jackson’s francolin, which is regionally endemic, sparry hawk, goshawks, eagles, sunbirds and plovers.
