Sailing like an ark amid the primeval forests of Kenya’s highest mountain, Mount Kenya, this lodge-hotel offers champagne-clear mountain air, sweeping views across the tree-canopy, sparkling trout streams, and gentle forest walks. Located at 2,134 metres above sea level, on the lower slopes of the mountain, Mount Kenya lodge is cool, tranquil and hushed for optimum game-sightings. The open-air viewing-deck looks down on to its own water hole and salt-lick, which attracts numerous herds of elephant and buffalo. There is also a tunnel leading to a photo-hide, which offers spectacular viewing and photographic opportunities just metres away from the wildlife at the water hole.

Raised on stilts above the forest canopy, a timbered drawbridge leads from the Mount Kenya forest and up on to the wooden ‘decks’ of our hotel. Inside, the impression of having boarded a ship is perpetuated by a combination of log panelled walls, timbered game-viewing decks and winding stairs leading to a selection of snugly comfortable, cabin-styled rooms.

Mount Kenya (5,199 m) is Kenya’s highest mountain, a national icon, a climbers’ Mecca, the nation’s namesake, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site and a wildlife stronghold. One of the world’s highest National Parks, it is also an extinct volcano some three and a half million years old and the sacred home of Ngai, God of the Kikuyu people.