Castle Forest Lodge – a Mount Kenya retreat

Down in Nairobi, it hasn’t rained in months. Red dust is everywhere. It coats the cacti and trees, blowing up in great tangerine clouds as you drive down the street. It gets in my nose and throat, and under my clothes and in my bed. The grass is dead and the summer, once so longed for, seems to have stretched an eternity. I long for the alpine air of Castle Forest Lodge, Nanyuki.

---

Escape the heat on the foothills of Mount Kenya

3 hours north at Mount Kenya it feels like spring. The drive up to Laikipia takes us through the city and past the fruit farms north of Nairobi. As we head towards Mount Kenya its peak is hidden by ominous black clouds. ‘Clouds’ we wonder, ‘Imagine if it rained’. At the foothills, we begin to climb through the tea plantations and the temperature dips. Suddenly it is green. Green everywhere. The light green tips of the tea plants sparkle under the shade of banana palms. The climate is temperate. The dust recedes into memory. I take a deep breath and the cool air is a balm.

---

Castle Forest Lodge

Castle Forest Lodge is an oasis of chill air and cool breeze in this heat haze of a country. Located on the foothills of Mount Kenya, it sits within the forest reserve itself. Elephants crash through the rain forest and trout flicker in its sparkling rivers and waterfalls. The lodge occupies a clearing from which the peak of Mount Kenya can be clearly seen. This is a place of quiet and calm. A place to ride horses, take walks, fish in the rivers or bath in the bush pool or waterfalls.

 

---

Castle Forest Lodge accommodation

Castle Forest Lodge is a wilderness camp perched on the side of Africa’s second highest mountain, but it has the docile reminiscent of all alpine slopes. Cabins dot the grass kept short by horses and goats, and a campsite offers hot showers. We stayed in the largest of the cabins. a three bedroom home hand built by the owners. A smart cabin it was too, extremely spacious with a rustic feel and a great deck made for lazy afternoons. The bathrooms are replete with power showers, modern tiles and fittings. Clean sheets and fluffy white duvets grace the beds, a fire is lit at night and the kitchen has everything you could want for. It’s rustic, but it’s not. It’s sort of faux rustic. You feel like you are living in a log cabin in the mountains but in fact, every modern convenience is there (bar TV/ WIFI).

 

---

Castle Forest Pub & Restaurant

Castle Lodge also has a surprisingly excellent pub/ restaurant. It has a feel of an old English country pub. You rather want to sit there nursing a beer and staring out over rain battered countryside with your dog at your feet. Instead, we were treated to sunshine on the deck, which overlooked the mountain and a kid’s playground. The kids tried to catch goats as we snacked on herby samosas and crunchy toasted sandwiches. I was one gin and tonic away from spending the whole day there.

 

---

Walking in Mount Kenya Forest Reserve

Instead, we went walking. First, we walked into the forest. We were advised to take a guide but at 500 bob per adult we thought it a bit of a ripoff, and so fuelled by gin and samosas we set off alone. It was amazing. And scary. About half an hour in the gin wore off and as the path through the forest twisted and turned we wondered if we had been foolish. This is an ancient forest, inhabited by predators of all kinds. It was a wondrous place. A place from storybooks. Enormous trees towered overhead, Vines dangled from the treetops inspiring Tarzan like leaves. Butterflies of all descriptions danced through the dappled sunlight. The air was heavy with must and damp. In fact, we saw no animals, predator or otherwise. The forest was eerily calm. We found our way out unscathed and headed to the waterfall. This small fall is right in the camp and the kids adored it. We stripped to our pants and jumped in, screeching at the icy coolness of the water delivered straight from the snowy peaks of Kenya’s largest mountain.

 

 

---

Mount Kenya Forest waterfalls

The night was for wine and fire pits and lunatic dancing under the stars. Come morning we decided a trip out to the large waterfall was in order. Having 5 kids aged between 5 and 7 we did most of it in the car. A hair-raising drive that resulted in a flat tyre and quite a bit of cursing. The walk to the waterfall was 30 minutes down a very steep cliff but it was worth every step. The 40-foot waterfalls thunders down in front of you. The air is frigid; ferns grow up the steep sides of the cliff in the dank air. It’s 1000 light-years away from the Nairobi dust and desert, the kids were ecstatic. We were pretty happy too. We ate sausages and boiled eggs and marvelled that just 3 hours from Nairobi we could be in a place that felt so uniquely magical.

---

Castle Forest Lodge information

Castle Forest Lodge comprises of Cottages for 1-2 people, Bungalows for 2 – 4 and chalets for 6+ plus camping. Prices range from 6000 KSH to 36000. Please inquire directly for camping prices. This includes entry to the reserve.

Horse riding, fishing and a guide are all available on site.

Visit https://www.castleforestlodge.com/ for more information or for the cheapest deals book via Agoda

And whilst in Laikipia why not head to Ol Pejeta for a safari … one of my favourite places in the world.

Sharing is caring!