The Lodges
On arrival in Nairobi, we spent our first evening at the Sarova Stanley Hotel about an hours drive from the airport. A beautiful hotel in the heart of the city. A great hotel steeped in history, built in 1902 on the site of a railway outpost. The first wooden and tin built hotel was burnt down in a fire in 1905. It was rebuilt on a larger corner plot, three stories high with 60 rooms and called The New Stanley. The hotel was used during both world wars as a base for the allied troops. Large scale reconstruction took place during 1959 including raising the number of floors to eight, making it the largest hotel in Eastern Africa. The Sarova Group purchased the hotel in 1978 which underwent a major upgrade in 1999 when the hotel reverted back to 'The Stanley Hotel'. Today the hotel is a luxury 5 star complex, an ideal base to tour Eastern Africa.
After a very comfortable stay at The Stanley, we spent our next night at The Mountain Lodge, set in the Kenya National Park, a three hour drive from Nairobi. Our accomodation should have been at 'Treetops' but over running renovation work prevented this. The Mountain Lodge was a great place to stay, our comfortable room looked across to a large watering hole where you could watch all the incoming wildlife from the comfort of your own room, The lodge was built on stilts and gave excellent viewing opportunities. Certainly worth another visit. From the Mountain Lodge we drove to Lake Nakuru in the Great Rift Valley.
The Lake Nakuru is reletavely small in size but rich in bodiversity. The lodge complex is set in one of the largest wetland areas in Eastern Africa on the shores of Lake Nakuru a great place to photograph Great and Lesser Flamingos as well as a host of other wildlife. There are 500 species of birds recorded at Lake Nakuru.
Lake Naivasha is a stunning complex, set in 200 acres of Lake Naivasha's southern shoreline still in the Great Rift Valley. The accomodation consists of individual chalet style dwellings all with large veranda's overlooking the reserve. The grounds around the lodge are well manaqured and provide a lovely retreat after a hard day on a safari drive. A treat on the evening was the walk from our chalet to the main lodge for our evening meal, we had to be escourted by guards as a result of the Hippo's coming up from the Lake to graze on the lush grass around our chalet and lodge! A great adventure. We stayed here for two nights. From Lake Naivasha we drove over to the Masai Mara the highlight of our safari.
The Masai Mara Sopa Lodge is set in the Oloolamutia Hills, a lovely complex set in extensive and mature wooded gardens. The lodge is a large spacious timber framed building incorporating much ethnic design, with traditional round rooms and thatched roofs. It makes the ideal base for touring the Masai Game Reserve. A great place to stay.
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