Places of interest near Naro Moru.

Planning a getaway? The Ikweta Collection of holiday rentals is a great way to get out of the city and explore.

So much to see, so much to do.

There are a great many interesting places to see in this area of the world and we encourage you to go and visit them. Here is a list of places which are worth a visit and their distance from the Ikweta Collection plot:

  • Equator Marker 20 km

  • Mount Kenya National Park 19 km

  • Mount Kenya Animal Orphanage 30 km

  • Baden-Powell’s House in Nyeri 38 km

  • Ol Pejeta Conservancy 45 km

  • Ngare Ndare Forest Park 59 km

  • Samburu National Reserve 160 km

  • Meru National Park 160 km

Wambuz G, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The Equator Marker

Laikipia straddles the global Equator and visiting one of the Equator markers makes for an interesting detour to any drive through or around Laikipia.

Stop for a photograph and to watch the way water swirls in a different direction as it flows down a drain on one side of the Equator and then on the other as you step over that globe-splitting line.

Mt. Kenya National Park and Mt. Kenya Wildlife Sanctuary

With it’s tallest peak standing at 5,199 meters, Mt. Kenya is the second tallest mountain in Africa. It is also both a National Park and a World Heritage site and it achieved both of those classifications because of it’s expansive, untouched beauty.

The National Park is home to uniquely adapted wildlife, both plant and animal and it can be explored by hikers, horse-riders, campers, wildlife-lovers, mountaineers and anything in-between.

Mt. Kenya has resident populations of Elephant, Eland, Tree Hyrax, White-tailed Mongoose and more. If you’re luck you may even see some of its lesser-spotted creatures.

Within the Park, you can also visit the Mt. Kenya Wildlife Sanctuary where Park Officials do their utmost to protect endangered species - such as the Mountain Bongo - and rehabilitate injured wildlife.

John Spooner, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Robert Baden-Powell’s Nyeri Home

World famous writer, solider, artist and, most famously, the brain behind the International Scouting movement, Robert Baden-Powell chose Nyeri, Kenya, as his home in 1939. Already famous for numerous exploits by this stage, the house in Nyeri - a cottage he’d commissioned and dubbed ‘Paxtu’ - was to be his retirement home.

Already aged and unwell at this point in his life, Baden-Powell unfortunately succumbed to the symptoms of a long-standing ailment not long after settling in Paxtu. He died in 1941 and his remains are buried nearby, in Nyeri Cemetery. His former home exists today as a museum that celebrates the great man’s life and achievements.

Each year, on the anniversary of Baden-Powell’s birth, Scouts from all over the world come to visit his former home, paying their respects and homage to a great man who influenced the lives of so many.

Márton Lajos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Ol Pejeta Conservancy

Once a sprawling colonial ranch, Ol Pejeta is now a wildlife conservancy with international significance. It has become the home and focal point for the fight to conserve certain of Africa’s endangered wildlife species.

Ol Pejeta is home to the world’s leading Rhino population rehabilitation programme. It is home to over 165 critically endangered black rhinos and the last two surviving northern white rhinos.

Also a home to predatory cats, buffalo, a variety of antelope species and many more icons of the African savannah, Ol Pejeta is a beautiful wild space that manages to juggle wildlife conservation, tourism, species restoration and livestock farming all at the same time.

It is an amazing spot and at a distance of only 45km from the Ikweta Collection houses, it can be explored as a day trip from our properties. So, pack yourself a picnic, bring your binoculars and your bird book and drive on over to Ol Pejeta.

Ngare Ndare Forest Park

A short drive from where we’re located, the Ngare Ndare Forest Park is nearly mystical place with a huge cultural and environmental importance to the area. It sits between the Mt. Kenya National Park and the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and it is, as a result, a vital wildlife corridor between the two.

It is also open to visitors. With it’s beautiful sundowner spots, stunning waterfalls, rolling hills and rocky outcroppings, it is an area that never fails to mesmerise. Visitors can come to spot wildlife - the birdlife is especially diverse -, hike, swim, picnic at one of the picnic spots and also rock climb.

Ngare Ndare Forest Park is also home to the longest canopy walk in East Africa. Raised 40 feet into the foresting tree cover, a wood and cable walkway allows you to walk amongst the tree-dwelling creatures. It’s an amazing opportunity to change your vantage point and look at life’s wonders from above.

Kyrofic, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Samburu National Reserve and Meru National Park

Kenya’s northern National Parks and Reserves may not get the same international attention of their southern counterparts but they are no less wild and far more untouched as a result of this difference in their reputation.

Home to huge iron-oxide red elephants, to wide-ranging lion, leopard and cheetah populations, to crocodiles, hippos, giraffe and antelope, Meru and Samburu are home to many of the huge attractions that consistently pull tourists to Tsavo or the Maasai Mara.

Kenya’s north is home to certain other species that you simply cannot find anywhere else in the country, however. The critically endangered Grevy’s Zebra, the Beisa Oryx, the Reticulated Giraffe, the Somali Giraffe and the Gerenuk can’t be found anywhere else in Kenya.