Kenya Safaris: Elsa's Kopje 

Elsa's Kopje (Kenya - Central Highlands 5 )

Meru National Park, in the old Northern Frontier District, is wild Africa at its most alluring. The animals are shy and unused to humans. Here you will find Elsa's Kopje, named for Elsa, the orphaned lioness reared by George and Joy Adamson and returned to the wild in Meru. This private hideaway is perched on top of Mugwongo Hill, site of George Adamson's first camp. This park is renowned for its low rainfall, yet at the same time thirteen rivers and numerous streams run off the nearby mountains to provide a landscape of arid land laced with ribbons of green.

From your private cottage, placed well away from your neighbour, you will enjoy a 270-degree view of the surrounding park with its scattered kopjes and mysterious baobab trees. The open plan rooms are individually designed, incorporating the rocks into the structure. Traditional African-made furniture, bright ikat fabrics and whitewashed walls are simple yet superbly comfortable and stylishly effective. Two rooms have monolithic baths which would be at home in the most modern of style magazines, yet fit perfectly with the landscape which you can see from them. George Adamson's words explain the attraction of Elsa's Kopje - "I felt a surge of elation as I left the artificial world....for the last time and drove north to Meru...". You will feel it too!