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Nairobi to Meru National Park

Robzimbo

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Dec 4, 2016
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S and I are just back from a wonderful few days in Meru National Park, one of the most remote and unexplored parks in Kenya, the place where George and Joy Adamson ('Born Free' etc) ran their research programmes in the 60's and 70's. We caught the end of the dry season, and the beginning of the rains - quite the most magical time to be in the bush. Pam performed pretty well, over a 750 km drive with over 7,000 meters cumulative ascent, from Nairobi at 1700 m down to the park at 550m. A couple of minor niggles, (a door handle fell off, the passenger window winder packed up, and we blew the seals on the F/L brake caliper - fixed by a Juia Kali mechanic who plugged the brake line with a screw so I could drive the last 130kms back to Nairobi on 3 brakes not 4... interesting, but manageable).

The park is amazing - dry dusty plains, cut by rivers flowing through riverine forest; towering baobab trees, elephant, rhino, lion hunting through the campsite at night (S was very glad we have a roof tent!). A beautiful young puff adder under a rock, like a jewel. Giraffe, wonderful birdlife, and, as ever, friendly helpful National Parks staff.

Some photos:

Journey route.png


The full route, with an elevation profile (recorded on my phone on the excellent Motion X GPS App, uploaded as a KMZ file.

Meru NP route.png


Some of our routes around the park, over five days of exploring.

Sunset campsite.jpg

Our campsite. Fire blazing. A cold G&T after a hot and dusty day out exploring in the wilds

Pam and rainbow.jpg

The first rains of the season. The land is dry and parched, but the smell of rain drifts down the wind promising new growth in a new season. The rainbow was a bonus

River crossing.JPG View attachment 124104

Wading the Rogewero river before making a crossing. After a careful check for crocs, of course...

Puff adfer.JPG


A beautiful young puff adder snoozing under a rock. Sorry the picture is out of focus. Can't think why I didn't hang around to make sure it was perfect...

R and rhino.JPG

Close encounter with two rhino. Once I shut the engine down they were quite unpeturbed. Maybe they thought Pam was one of their own.

Rain coming.JPG

The rains come rolling in across the Meru plains.

God. Africa. What a privilege to live here.
 
Last edited:
Looks quite like Yorkshire really. :think:


Not. Beautiful.
 
Great part of Kenya. Next time try Samburu - not far from Meru and that's amazing as well. We were there last year and saw 4 of the big 5. Only missed Rhino.
 
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