United kingdom Daily news: Kenya safari holidays: A break fit for a Queen at Treetops

Kenya safari holidays: A break fit for a Queen at Treetops

By Robert Hardman

PUBLISHED: 05:18 EST, 25 April 2012 | UPDATED: 05:18 EST, 25 April 2012

As ths was the scene of one of the most famous mini-dramas in post-war British history, I am expecting to find some sort of marker â€" a plaque, perhaps, or at least a sign.

But all I can see is a youthful fig tree encased in some wooden fencing to protect it from hungry elephants. Yet this is the spot where our Queen acceded to the Throne 60 years ago in the early hours of February 6, 1952.

Into history: The then-Princess Elizabeth waves goodbye as she departs for her 1952 Commonwealth tour

She was staying at Treetops, an elaborate treehouse on the edge of a watering hole in Kenya's Aberdare National Park. As the legend goes, she went up the tree a Princess and came down a Queen (George VI having died in his sleep at Sandringham in the meantime).

It was, by all accounts, a comfortable three-bedroom shack (plus tiny servant's quarter) built in the upper branches of a giant fig tree.

Two years later, Mau Mau guerrillas burned it down, but a new Treetops took shape on the other side of the watering hole and remains there today. And some things never change.

I can easily sense the excitement the Princess must have felt as she arrived here - no fuss, no greeting line, no dress code and just a tiny entourage. She could spend an entire night absorbed in that vast and fantastic natural theatre that is the African bush.

Nothing has changed in that regard. In just three days, and without trying very hard, we managed to see just about everything you might hope to spot on an African safari.

A few hours' drive north of Nairobi, this is a very different part of Kenya from the popular perception of wide open plains with thundering herds of wildebeest.

Aberdare National Park, in the Aberdare mountains, is all plunging valleys, thick with vegetation so dense that you can turn a corner and find an entire bull elephant just munching away behind a bush. And then, all of a sudden the undergrowth opens out to sweeping valley views.

There are watering holes and salt licks all over the 300 square miles of park. The best-known lies next to Treetops. After the destruction of the original treehouse, the owners built a hotel on stilts on the other side of the watering hole, and it has been a major tourist draw ever since.

Horns of plenty: Robert encountered wildlife galore on his own tour of Kenya

But the hotel was getting on a bit and the shared bathrooms - acceptable back in the Fifties - did not suit the modern safari guest. So the hotel has undergone a complete overhaul in time for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and has reopened with 36 rooms, all en-suite.

But you do not have to stay at Treetops to see all the wildlife. When we were there the refurbishment was still going on, so we stayed at Treetops's sister establishment, the Outspan, a 20-minute drive away in Nyeri. From there, a fleet of open-topped Land Rovers can take guests all over the park.

Aberdare has buffalo galore, plenty of elephants, black rhino, antelopes, monkeys and hyenas. Driving around shortly after dawn, we turned a bend to see the ultimate in safari treats â€" a leopard.

You can also retrace (as long as you have an armed guide) the jungle walk which Princess Elizabeth made in 1952. These days, though, it is a walk in the open; marauding elephants have eaten most of the vege tation.

The Outspan played its own part in that famous saga in 1952.

It was where the Queen's officials were staying and where the news came through that King George VI had died. It still has the same old-world atmosphere with floral sofas and a half-timbered dining room which could have been transplanted from a grand Scottish shooting lodge.

The terrace has wonderful views across to snow-capped Mount Kenya while, in the grounds, sits an intriguing cottage which was the final home of Lord Baden-Powell, father of the Scout movement.

Today, it is a popular scouting museum.

Thanks to its high altitude there's no malaria in this part of Kenya, and the climate is delightful, too - sunblock and breezes all day, log fires at night.

There is also an astonishing range of landscapes all within an hour of each other. We spent a superb afternoon at the 17,000-acre Solio Ranch where we saw dozens of white rhino and a solitary, bad-tempered black one, t oo.

At the 90,000-acre Ol Pejeta Conservancy (wide plains and rivers), we spent a gripping half-hour watching a lioness failing to ambush a bongo antelope and found our first hippo.

After a couple of nights at Outspan, it was on to the Mount Kenya Safari Club, next to the 280 square miles of Mount Kenya National Park. I hadn't been on a horse in years but a riding safari was glorious.

At lower levels, you ride through dense coniferous forests. It could almost be Scotland, until you bump into a zebra. The next minute, you are in thick grass above the tree line giving a wide berth to a cow elephant with a calf.

Like the Outspan, the Safari Club has its own glamorous history.

Originally a base for big game hunters, it was cofounded by American actor William Holden, who would bring his Hollywood gang out here. Today, it is a peaceful hotel with heady views of Mount Kenya, a magnificent pool and an extensive animal orphanage and sanctuary at the back .

Another era: The new Queen in Kenya on February 6th 1952, after hearing the news of her father's death

Children will love Willie the free-range impala, the zebroid (half zebra/half horse), the gnu that thinks he's a llama, the bushpig that thinks he's a warthog and two cheetahs.

Throughout our entire trip, we were struck by two things. First, there is far more wildlife than we dared to anticipate. Second, while the hotels are busy, we hardly saw another soul out in the wild.

Sixty years on, the Queen might be sad to see what has happened to her treehouse. But she would also find that life is reassuringly familiar out in the wild.

Travel Facts

For more information, contact Kenya Tourist Board (0207 367 0931, www.magicalkenya.com ).

Kenya Airways flies daily from Heathrow to Nairobi from Â£566 return (020 8283 1818, www.kenya-airw ays.com ).

A suite at Treetops costs from Â£274 full-board and a standard room at the Outspan from Â£224 full-board (00254 722 207761, www.aberdaresafarihotels.co.ke ).

A double room at the Mount Kenya Safari Club costs from Â£394 full-board (00254 20 226 555, www.fairmont.com/kenyasafariclub).

Transfer arrangements can be provided by Nature Expeditions (00 254 20 269 7453, www.natureexpeditions.com).