Changing the feel for our lodges entirely for just a single evening, we spent a night at the Ark, which is in the Aberdare moutains some 12000 feet up and accessible only by lodge-owned shuttle. We arrived in the early afternoon and wandered down a wooden catwalk to the building shown below.
Being tucked deep in the woods and accessible only at certain times, the Ark is a very mellow and quiet place to stay. I had been there in '96 with my dad and looked forward very much to showing Kathryn the area. While we were there we saw lots of cape buffalo (including an epic fight, sure to get its own post eventually), giant forest hogs, tiny gazelles called Suni, genets, and a wide variety of birds including swarms of speckled mousebirds at the nearby feeder.
The feature of the Ark which I enjoy most by far and wish other lodges went further to copy is the underground bunker where you can watch the local waterhole at the animals level and without too much of a feeling of anything between you (other than a reassuring 3ft of concrete when the animals get a bit too intense).
Being tucked deep in the woods and accessible only at certain times, the Ark is a very mellow and quiet place to stay. I had been there in '96 with my dad and looked forward very much to showing Kathryn the area. While we were there we saw lots of cape buffalo (including an epic fight, sure to get its own post eventually), giant forest hogs, tiny gazelles called Suni, genets, and a wide variety of birds including swarms of speckled mousebirds at the nearby feeder.
The feature of the Ark which I enjoy most by far and wish other lodges went further to copy is the underground bunker where you can watch the local waterhole at the animals level and without too much of a feeling of anything between you (other than a reassuring 3ft of concrete when the animals get a bit too intense).
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