Explore Meru: Mount Kenya's Scenic Eastern Approach

Introduction

Meru gives access to Mount Kenya's eastern side, home to the mountain's most scenic trekking approach, and to its own national park with a genuine literary and conservation history separate from the mountain itself.

Overview

Mount Kenya, Africa's second-highest peak at 5,199 metres, has three distinct summits: Batian and Nelion, both requiring technical rock climbing to reach, and Point Lenana, at 4,985 metres the goal of most visiting trekkers, reachable on foot without technical gear given several strenuous days and proper acclimatisation. The mountain is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for both its dramatic glacial landscape and its biodiversity, though its glaciers, like mountain glaciers worldwide, have been visibly retreating for decades. Of the mountain's main routes, Chogoria, approaching from the Meru side, is widely considered the most scenic — a path through forest, moorland and a dramatic gorge lined with tarns and waterfalls, generally regarded as more beautiful than the shorter but steeper Naro Moru route or the gentler Sirimon route that both approach from the opposite side. Separately, Meru National Park itself holds its own place in conservation history: it's where Elsa the lioness, raised from a cub by George and Joy Adamson, was rehabilitated and eventually released into the wild, the original story that became the book and film Born Free — a different chapter of the same broader Adamson story that also touches Samburu's own Shaba Reserve. The park remains genuinely wild and considerably less visited than Kenya's southern circuit, with diverse terrain including doum palm groves along its rivers.

Discover Meru

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