East of the East African Rift Valley, Aberdare National Park is a protected region inside the Aberdare Mountains Range in central Kenya. It covers the Aberdare Salient to the east and the more general areas. About 100 km North of Nairobi, Aberdare National Park has a great range of topography at heights ranging from 2000 meters (6,600 ft.) to 4000 meters (13,000 ft.). Established in 1950, Aberdare national park spans 766 square kilometers and is a component of the Aberdare Mountain Range. From mountain tops rising to 4000 meters (13,000 feet) above the sea level, to their deep-shaped valleys pierced by the streams, rivers, and waterfalls, the park offers a great variety of settings. Lower altitudes are found moorland, bamboo woods, and rainforests.
Aberdare National Park boasts a range of wildlife species; among the Big 5 animal species found there are lions, buffaloes, rhinos, leopard, and elephants. The second-largest population of the threatened black rhinos in Aberdare national park is Kenya’s Not only that the park is well known for other animal species including the East African wild dog, giant forest hog, bushbuck, mountain reedbuck, suni, side-striped jackal, eland, duiker, African Wild cat, African civet cat, blue duiker, olive baboon, black and white colobus monkey and the sykes monkey. Less common sightings include those of the bongo and the African golden cat.
The visitors can view specials like the common eland, serval on the upper moorlands during the wildlife safari in Aberdare National Park. An elephant migration corridor of the rich forests and plentiful species, including bush pigs, dik-dik, bushbuck, reedbuck and many others, makes up the Salient section of the park.
Giant forest hog and big spotted genet are among the nighttime visitors to the waterholes; the woodland provides a habitat for the exceedingly secretive and exquisite bongo antelope. Numbers have sadly dropped over the past few decades, and sightings are quite rare.
Over 250 bird species call Aberdare National Park home. The bird enthusiasts who visit the park do enjoy seeing several bird species including the threatened Aberdare Cisticola, Jackson’s spurfowl, African goshawk, African fish eagle, Montagu’s harcher, Montane white-eye, Moorland chat, Mountain Buzzard, Olive ibis, Silvery-cheeked hornbill, Tacazze sunbird, sunbirds, plovers and many more. The most common species are sunbirds; maybe a splash of brilliant yellow and black among the leaves may catch your eye to a golden-winged sunbird.
There are unique kinds of vegetation in Aberdare National Park. The Aberdare vegetation is marked by the wide moorland and steep forested ravines. Because of the park’s elevation and rainfall, there are 778 different types of plants including subspecies and variants. Among hardwood trees are camphor, cedar, podo, hagenia, and several more. While on the Aberdare national park safari, the visitors should investigate two fascinating ecosystems: a thick rainforest and high, Afro-alpine moorlands that also support a range of bird and animal life.
Aberdare National Park Safari Vegetation in Aberdare National Park
Sheltered areas on the undulating moorland comprise pockets of the Hagenia forest.
With several mountain peaks in Aberdare national park that provide hiking safari like the elephant hill hike, which stands at 3720 meters above the sea level and is a 26km hike as you keep observing the Sasamua dam, hiking is an exciting activity and the most adventurous one available in the park. Additionally during the hiking safari in Aberdare national park you can climb the Ol Doinyo Mountain, which reaches 4000 meters above sea level. Mount Satima, sometimes called the mountain of the young bull. Hiking the Satima mountain takes you approximately five hours and requires you to have warm clothing since the higher you go the cooler it becomes. You will enjoy amazing views of the rift valley, Mount Kenya, a diversity of the species.
The amazing waterfalls of Aberdare national park likewise drop from cloud covered heights to spray-filled ravines. Karuru waterfalls, which span three steps—the first 117M, the second 26M, and the third 130M—have a combined total of 273M. Other waterfalls in the park are Thomson’s or Nyahururu, Kereita cave and waterfall, Chain waterfall, Magura waterfall and Queen’s cave, Gura falls which torent from the opposite side of Karuru falls, and Enchanting Magura falls which cascade across the yawning mouth of the Queen’s cave.
As they stroll through the jungle, these falls provide the visitors on their Kenya trip at Aberdare national park an amazing view. Reaching the waterfall lookout from the Mutubio West Gate—roughly 8km away—the climb across the forest to see the falls is actually rather simple, 20 minutes.
Apart from all the wildlife in Aberdare National Park, visitors on the Kenya Cultural Safari would want to explore the site of the hideout of Mau leader Dedan Kimathi, who used these mountains as a base; many of his friends learnt the ropes of jungle warfare fighting in Burma in WWII.
Down the Aberdare ranges verdant slopes is a huge Mugumo tree which is simply looking at you. The Kenyan Mau Mau freedom fighters actually curve crevices in the trunk of this tree and these are used as an undisclosed post office where they pass messages through agents.
The Kikuyu people, who believe that these mountains are among the homes of their (Ngai) natives originally named this location Nayanarua (to indicate drying hide), are the local population closest to the park.
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