"EAST OR WEST HOME IS BEST" Aberdare National Park by flyrubi

Abardare National park is in Nyandarua District and this is where i grew up and went to school and it's also where my parents still stay.
Nyandarua is a an agricultural area and receives adequate rainfall throughout the year so it's an evergreen place and relatively a cold place due to the abardare ranges.
Residents here grow Potatoes{irish} in large scale, vegetables, peas and onions. some years back they used to grow pyrethrum as a cash crop but due to problems with payments the farmers now concentrate with horticulture.
When i was in primary school used to dread saturdays coz that is the day when pyrethrum used to be picked and i am telling you it's not such an easy task and it was disgnated for the children. It's done while bending your back so as to reach the flowers now you understand why the grown ups used to avoid it.
Pyrethrum is a plant that produces flowers which are picked, the flowers have an active constituents collectively called the Pyrethrins. The pyrethrin is extracted and used to make botanical insectcides which are well recognized for low mammalian toxicity and non-persistence in the environment

Our home is not very far from the National park, before it was fenced we used to go to the forest and colect firewood as this is the main sorce of energy in many homesteads in this area. It was illigal to do it but we used to play cat and mouse games with the game wardens, but one day we were not lucky with my friend as we were arrested and alas the warden confisticated our tools of work { pangas and rope for carrying the firewood }. Also my first time to see an elephant was here in one of our missions of collecting firewood luckly it was a mother elephant and it's youngone so it didn't take notice of us, otherwise it would be a different story.
For the farmers like us who are next to the park it was a relief after the fencing of the park as most of the time elephants used to come to the shambas and destoy foodcrops.

Aberdare National Park is famous for its tree-house hotels - Treetops and The Ark. With walkways and accommodation raised into the forest canopy, you can watch animals from a unique vantagepoint. Positioned by waterholes and natural salt licks, animals provide constant entertainment and seem undisturbed by the stream of curious visitors, some of whom stay up all night to catch sightings of shy animals by floodlight. There is even a viewing hide dug below ground with windows level with the waterhole, where elephants come within inches of your face.

• Pros:has the best tree- house lodges to watch animals under floodlight waterholes.
• Cons:Children under 7yrs are not allowed in the tree house hotels.