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Ol Doinyo Sapuk National Park - Kenya Safari
In the opposite direction from Nairobi is Ol Doinyo Sapuk National Park, meaning the mountain of the buffalo, which rises from the haze some 50 kilometers from Nairobi. In Kenya terms, the mountain is not high (2150 meters) but it has several attractions and with an added assurance that AfricanMecca guests can reach the summit without effort in our vehicles!
Surrounding the summit is a primal forest with some of the giant plants, notably Lobelia giberroa associated with the Afro-alpine zones of higher equatorial mountains. Birdlife is diverse and there is some wildlife although the terrain and the forest make game viewing very difficult. The views from the summit are stunning. On clear days, particularly in December and January the snow peaks of Mount Kenya stand out crystal clear and on the grasslands and plains between that mountain and Ol Doinyo Sapuk, hundreds of small dams, diamonds on green velvet, sparkle in the exuberant, pellucid morning air.
Ol Doinyo Sapuk National Park is reached by taking the Garissa road from Thika where after some 20 kilometers a signboard points right to Fourteen Falls and to the park. Fourteen Falls was declared a National Park and a short stop to view the falls is well worth while. A broad cascade of white water plunges 30 meters over a precipice with many lips - giving rise to the name. Ol Doinyo Sapuk remained unclimbed at least in recorded history - until 1902 when D. Powell-Cotton reached its summit. Not long after, the legendary Sir William Northrup MacMillan, an American millionaire from St Louis, acquired the mountain and a great deal of ranch land at its foot and created a home where he entertained a succession of eminent visitors among them Winston Churchill and ex-President Theodore Roosevelt of the US. When he died, he bequeathed the mountain to the nation and was buried there. The road to the summit passes his grave and those of his wife and their servant Louise Decker.
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