My safari started long before I reached Meru National Park, as I’d opted to drive from Nairobi instead of flying; spending a few days circumnavigating Mount Kenya’s ‘ring road’ in a clockwise direction through the Central Highlands. I weaved through colourful, animated towns, shambas (small plots) and superbly picturesque ‘up-country’ scenery, from richly cultivated terraced farms to foggy mountain slopes thickly cloaked in well-watered forests.
This route, increasingly becoming popular as a self-drive circuit or organised safari from the nation’s capital, followed the A2 via Nyeri and Nanyuki up to the Isiolo turnoff in the north, and looped back on the B6, via Meru and Embu towns to re-join the A2 at Thika. And there are plenty of parks, reserves and private conservancies to stop at too. After exploring both the excellent Ol Pejeta and Lewa wildlife conservancies, Meru National Park was in my sights — and only a doable day’s driving distance to get there on this circular route around Kenya’s lofty highest peak.