Laikipia plateau

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Lying on the edge of Northern Frontier, the Laikipia Plateau stretches from the slopes of snow-capped Mount Kenya in the Aberdare Mountain Range to the rim of the Great Rift Valley and the start of the Samburu tribal lands. Laikipia boasts one of the largest elephant populations in East Africa with over three thousand elephants and is one of the last strongholds of the endangered Black Rhino. Despite its scattered mosaic of farms and cattle ranches, it is essentially still a wilderness, a wildlife refuge supporting huge numbers of game. The Plateau boasts game second only to the Masai Mara in its abundance.

Laikipia offers diverse scenery from the edge of the Great Rift Valley, to the peaks of Mount Kenya, with dusty plains and verdant grasslands, interspersed with rocky hills, rivers, and waterholes. The so-called “Ewaso ecosystem” is larger than all of Kenya’s protected areas except Tsavo. The reserve consists of grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe, as well as the only viable population of Jackson’s Hartebeest and an expanding population of wild dog. Leopard, lion, cheetah and other predators hunt the plentiful plains game of impala, gazelle, reticulated giraffe, grevy’s zebra, somali ostrich, gerenuk and beisa oryx which is endemic to the north of Kenya.

The long hot and humid rainy period starts around April and lasts until June, then the short rains come during the warm months of November and December. January through to March are hot and dry, while July to October are warm and dry. The warm dry season is the best for game viewing and for personal comfort.

Compared to game reserves such as the Masai Mara, Laikipia remains almost completely unknown to tourists and it is also the only part of Kenya in which wildlife numbers have actually increased over the past 20 years. However, it is slowly becoming a tourist hot-spot and offers some of the most luxurious and exclusive safari lodges in Africa.