Meru park Now teeming with wildlife- Kudos to good Kenyan News from the Business Daily

By Jackson Biko

You can’t talk about Elsa, the famous lioness from the blockbuster movie, Born Free, without talking about Meru National Park.

And you can’t talk about this park without talking about Elsa’s Kopje - an environmental award-winning boutique lodge in Meru National Park.

In the whole of this park, spanning over 870km square, there are only two lodges (the other is Leopard Rock lodge) but only one eco-lodge - Elsa’s Kopje lodge.

Elsa’s Kopje, drawn by an architectural genius in the name of Stefano Cheli, is literally sculptured in Munghwango hills, above the site of George Adamson’s original camp where he raised orphaned lions long before the word conservation came to most people’s lips.

In fact, in the late 90’s, eco-lodges were largely rare concepts. A large building team of 90 were on site to build the lodge, which is literally crafted around rocks that completely disappears into nature with little or no impact to the environment.

Kopje is a Dutch word for “hill”.  

The couple Stafano and Liz Cheli - going by the umbrella Cheli and Peacock camps - also own Kiich Camp, Joy’s camp in Shaba National Reserve, Elephant Pepper Camp in Maasai Mara, Tortilis Camp in Amboseli and Lewa Camp.

Meru National Park has a dreary history of poaching. The 80’s and 90’s were a free-for-all for poachers. Everything went. Literally every wild animal was killed! 

Go there now, and you’ll be amazed at the level of conservancy and rehabilitation going on – newly introduced tracks, 24-hour rhino conservancy, patrols and even a KWS-piloted plane that flies over the area, which has literally brought blood back to the park again.

The guides from the lodge who do about 10,000kms also act as KWS subsidiary eyes, reporting on any fires, sick animals and suspicious human activity in the park. The roads in the park are mostly graded.

The lodge’s manager, Philip Mason who has been managing the park for five years now says the park is registering the greatest growth in animals.

“Animals like zebras, kudus, impalas, elands, oryx and many others have multiplied extraordinarily over time. The number of lions in the park - about 50 – have maintained or increased slightly because of the zero threats they get from human conflict.

It’s amazing to imagine how far the park has come. In the early 90’s, Meru National Park did not have any functional lodges and there was talk of degazetting the park to make way for rice plantations!

Lodges like Elsa’s Kopje are now putting the park back in the map. During its launch in 1999, Richard Leakey – the then director of KWS – together with Virginia McKenna of the Born Free Foundation (she also played the main role in the movie) and a bunch of UK media were present to witness the lodge open to business and its continuing being a shining gem in the area.

As Maasai Mara fights its battles with management, environmental and community squabbles, Meru National Park is slowly rising as a powerhouse.

Although all the wild animals that live in the park had to be relocated from other parks (about 2000 originally) it’s now become home to the white rhino, greater and lesser Kudu, Grevy’s Zebra, African Wild dog, Honey Badgers, Aardvarks, Aardwolf, Serval Cat, baboons, dik diks, bush babies, ostriches, reptiles, arachnids, insects and a birdlife of more that 300 species.

Elsa’s Kopje, that opened its doors when there were no animals in the park, has grown to be awarded “Silver Level” by the internationally-recognised Ecotourism society for many good reasons.

First, it seems suspended in the air. At least you feel that way when you laze in their infinity pool. Because it stands perched on the highest point in the middle of the park, the view is overwhelming.

The lodge also consumes a minimum amount of energy though LED and energy-saving bulbs, solar water heaters and power to supplement the generator that only uses diesel for a maximum of six hours per day.

Food is from the local farmers. Rubbish is recycled and glass sold to a recycling plant in Nairobi.

The spirits of George and Joy Adamson still linger at that lodge and you are reminded of this fact by the numerous framed black and white photographs that line their walls.

But even more lively is the feeling of the wild that it conjures and what humans can do to save their environment and wildlife.
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