Friday, January 13, 2012

Assessment of Solio Game reserve and Solio Lodge

5:47 PM
By Garth Roberts


Fires were lit for our return, which make such a wonderful welcome after a full wildlife adventure.

We spent two nights in Solio Laikipia, to write a good review of the Solio Game Reserve in the Mount Kenya region of Kenya.

Solio is a special privately held sanctuary sandwiched on the Laikipia Plain, between the Abedares and Mt Kenya.

All Solio Ranch Lodges are non-public, modern, roomy and ecofriendly with panoramic views.The apartments at Solio Lodge also have unique bathrooms (bath and rain showers) have fires lit for your return, which are such an excellent welcome after a full wildlife adventure.

The Lodge has an amazing fusion of first class 5 star accommodations in a private wildlife sanctuary. I'm not sure it gets any better than the personal game drives followed by good food, service, folk and rooms.

The accommodation, the hospitality and the game experience were excellent. The staff were stupendously accommodating, warm and friendly. The food was the most extraordinarily healthy, flavorful and divine food, I've ever experienced on my many trips. You could not ask for a better five plus star experience.

While at the Solio Ranch the staff kindly told us about the new Lily Pond Arts Centre on the equator in Nanyuki.

The workers at Solio were adamant that we made a trip to the massive art studio, as it displays affordable contemporary art from East Africa's top contemporary artists, away from the hustle of city life.

You can choose to either absorb the atmosphere of this tranquil and special African arts place, or meet the "Artists in Residence". The Art Gallery houses art graduates from art faculties in Nairobi, Kenya who are on full-time, long-term placements at the arts centre, manufacturing and displaying new affordable art works.

This new art studio in Nanyuki, aims to operate as a springboard for young artists to launch their art careers, while allowing safari visitors to buy original works of art.

We also enjoyed a good lunch on a deck, overlooking a massive lily pond.

With the great Mount Kenya Mountain as a backdrop, we also loved watching the white egret, hunting the frogs in the pond!

What we found superb is that the equator slices clean through the middle of this Arts Centre. This means that you can view provoking African art in both the Southern Hemisphere and the Northern Hemisphere!

This new Arts Centre in Nanyuki, has just installed a new equator sculpture, the Wish World, which is installed exactly at 0000000. Everybody writes down their wishes and then hangs them onto the "Wish Globe". Guess what I wished for?

The arts centre has a unique shop stocked with hand- made African gifts such as beaded sandals, recycled flip flop toys, African masks, Glass chimes, Kenyan metal geckos and lots more unusual African gift ideas. That was most of our vacation money gone!




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