KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE
tourism & conservation manual
20 / Eastern
A complete wilderness Parks in this area: - Kora National Park - Meru National Park
What to bring with you: - Drinking water - Picnic items - Camping equipment (if you intend to stay overnight) - Binoculars - Camera - Hat - Sunscreen - Sunglasses - Guidebooks
Meru National Park contacts: The Senior Warden PO Box 11, Maua Tel: +254 (0)61 230 3094 +254 (0)20 210 9508 Email: merupark@kws.go.ke
Straddling the equator and bisected by 13
autobiographical book, ‘Born Free’, and its
rivers and numerous mountain-fed streams,
successful film adaptation.
Meru National Park is one of the most beautiful parks in Kenya. A green paradise
Game viewing
compared with the dry savannah of some of
Game viewing opportunities in Meru include
Kenya’s parks, this was the wilderness into
buffalo, bushbuck, duiker, eland, elephant,
which George and Joy Adamson released
gazelle, genet, giraffe, hartebeest, impala, kudu,
Elsa the lioness, creating the much-loved
waterbuck and zebra. Visitors can expect to see
film ‘Born Free’. Meru’s sister park, the ad-
baboon, hyena, jackal, kudu, large prides of
joining Kora National Park, was designated a
lion, mongoose, oryx, oribi, vervet monkey and
reserve in 1973 and a park in 1990. Covering
warthog. The rivers in the park abound with
just over 1,700 sq km, it comprises an area of
hippo and crocodile. Birdlife includes Peter’s
dense woodland and scrub. Its 65 km north-
finfoot, which inhabits the Murera and Ura Rivers,
ern boundary is formed by the Tana River.
Pel’s fishing owl, kingfishers, rollers, bee-eaters, starlings and numerous weavers.
Elsa the lioness Meru National Park is the former home of Joy
George Adamson’s grave
and George Adamson, who famously raised an
Kora National Park contains the grave of George
orphaned lioness in their home and then later
Adamson, who was shot and killed by bandits or
returned her to a life in the wild.
poachers on 20 August 1989 while attempting to help a tourist escape. Adamson spent his last
Tana River and Adamson’s Falls
years in Kora and stubbornly refused to leave even
Meandering all the way from the Aberdare Forest,
when the violence continued to escalate. He is
Kenya’s longest river, the Tana River, makes its
buried next to his brother, Terence, who died two
way into Kora National Park where it ruptures into
years earlier in the park, and two of his lions.
Adamson’s Falls. A trip to this part of Kenya would not be complete without visiting these awe-
Fishing
inspiring falls. Other popular visitor attractions are
Within Kora National Park fishing is permitted at
the Grand Falls and the Kora Rapids.
campsites and along the Tana River.
Joy and George Adamson
Other activities and attractions
The former home of Joy and George Adamson
Camping, views of Mount Kenya from Meru
is preserved and available for viewing. Meru
National Park, rock climbing in Kora National
National Park was made famous by the couple’s
Park and inselbergs.