Meru National Park
www.kws.org
With just a few tourist package tours visiting Meru National Park, it makes it one of the least trampled and unspoiled of Kenya's parks. Some 85 km away from Meru town and 370 km northeast of Nairobi, straddling the equator, the 1810 sq km is mainly covered with thorny bushland and wooded grasslands to the west. There are 13 rivers and numerous mountain-fed streams that flow into the Tana River from the south. Dense riverine forests grow along the watercourses surrounded by the prehistoric-looking doum palms. There are hundreds of species of birds including the Somali ostrich, the red-necked falcon and Pel's fishing owl, which can be heard at night by the Tana River. Animals include lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, Grevy's and plains zebra, gerenuk, reticulated giraffe, hippo, lesser kudu, oryx, hartebeest and Grant's gazelle and some fairly large herds of buffalo.
The national park suffered greatly from poachers during the late 1980s, which resulted in the deaths of several rangers and two French tourists, along with the annihilation of the introduced white rhino population. Following these incidents the option of visiting Meru National Park was effectively withdrawn by all the safari operators. The Kenyan government have now driven out the poachers and restored security. However, much of the wildlife in the park was decimated and it will be some time before numbers are fully recovered. Nevertheless there have been some success stories and in 2001 Kenya Wildlife Services embarked on an elephant translocation initiative and moved 56 elephants (nine different families) from the Laikipia Plateau to Meru National Park. Since then a variety of other game has also been relocated into Meru, including 20 Grevy's zebra in 2002, 39 giraffe in 2003, and 20 black rhino and 10 white rhino in 2006, as well as very large herds of plains zebra and reedbuck.
The park was opened in 1968 and became famous for its role in the
Born Free
story. The late Joy Adamson hand-reared the orphaned lioness Elsa here, later releasing her into the wild. Elsa died of tick-borne fever and was buried in a forest clearing by Joy. After her death, Joy was also buried at the same site near the Adamson's Falls next to the Tana River, where the grave is marked by a small plaque.
In recent years, Kenya Wildlife Services has built a three-span Bailey bridge across the Tana River. Funded by the World Bank, the 138-m galvanized steel bridge links Meru National Park to Kora National Park and allows for the free movement of animals between the parks. The bridge has been named the Adamson Bridge in honour of George Adamson, who lived in Kora with his beloved lions at Kampi ya Simba.
Meru National Park is close to several national reserves including Bisanadi, North Kitui and Rahole. They have no tourist facilities at present. Kora was upgraded from reserve to national park following the death of George Adamson and there are plans to open it up in the near future.
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This is edited copy from Footprint Handbooks. For comprehensive details (incl address, tel no, directions, opening times and prices) please refer to book or individual chapter PDF
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