The Aberdares

THE ABERDARES is best known for being the home of the famous Treetops Hotel where Princess Elizabeth became Queen of England in 1952. Part of the range is protected as the Aberdare National Park that encompasses a 70km l ong narrow massif that branded as a world-class tourist destination and a conservation area.

The first white man to see the Aberdares mountain range was Joseph Thomson, who gave it the name Aberdare after Lord Aberdare (Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron of Aberdare 1815 – 1895), who was the then President of the Royal Geographic Society.

The forests of the Aberdare range are renowned for their botanical riches and torrential waterfalls plunging from cloud-shrouded heights to spray filled ravines. The falls include the Gura water fall which is the most prestigious falls in Kenya. The Queen’s cave pavilion was the site for 1959 royal picnic lunch for Queen Elizabeth 11 and her husband Prince Philip.

The high moorlands of the mountain range are ideal for wilderness trecking, complete with panoramic views, clear and tumbling streams, and glorious flora. The Aberdares forest is rich in wildlife; it is estimated that 2000 elephants roam the clouded hills. Other animals found there are rhino, warthog, bush pig and giant forest hog, waterbuck, duiker, suni dikdik, reedbuck and the shy and very rare bongo.