Location

The Malu Area

Malu consists of 1786 acres, stretching from the top of the escarpment to the east, down to the Malewa river on the west, and comprises mainly indigenous juniper cedar forest.

Fifty years ago the entire escarpment was covered with this forest—now the Malu section is almost the only piece remaining, making this area of vital importance to the bird and wildlife of the area, as well as the fragile Naivasha basin ecosystem. We employ twelve askaris to protect both the wildlife and the timber from poaching.

We are at approximately 6,800 feet (2,070 m) above sea level, about 700 feet above Lake Naivasha, rising to 7,600 feet (2,320 m) at the ridge. We border 3kms of the Malewa River, Lake Naivasha’s main tributary which originates in the Aberdares. Our drinking water comes from a stream supplied by a number of natural springs on the escarpment, and is pumped up the hill by a hydro-ram, a self-powered pump whose boom you may hear as you walk towards the plunge pool.

Animal and Bird life

The density of the forest means that it is hard to see the game easily, but a search for Colobus & Sykes (Blue) monkeys is usually most rewarding. There are many leopard on the Malu reserve, as well as dikdik, bushbuck, bushpigs, warthogs, serval cats, buffalo, aardvark, porcupine, mongoose, spring & african hares, hyena & zebra (you may notice a male zebra with the horses—he is Bob, & decided in around July 01 that the horses would be “his” herd; he is now always here). See our bird page

Getting to Malu

Travel by road:

Malu is situated on the Rift Valley escarpment to the east of Lake Naivasha. 11 km from the main Nairobi - Nakuru road and 14kms from Naivasha town.

We are one-and-a-half hour’s drive from Nairobi (1hr 10mins on good tarmac, 20 mins on murram), and one hour’s drive from Nakuru. 4x4 vehicles are recommended, especially in the wet season. Malu has its own 4x4 Land cruisers – please contact us for rates for transfers, pick-ups & game drives.

Travel by air

We have a runway for light aircraft, please see our Runway Details and Google Earth Marker.

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