Kora National Park

George Adamson’s Lasting Legacy

Devastated over the years by drought and poaching, Kora is a work in progress. It began as a game reserve created by George Adamson, the grand old lion man of Kenya, and was gazetted as a national park after his murder by Somali bandits in 1989. There is currently nowhere to stay and the park is best visited on a whole day trip from the adjoining Meru National Park. What you will find is a pristine wilderness of arid thornbush and red rocky inselbergs with the Tana flowing along its northern boundary. Animals are few: hippo, waterbuck, lesser kudu, maybe even a leopard if you are very lucky; but birding is good among the doum palms and poplars on the banks of the Tana. Most visitors come to see Kampi ya Simba, where George Adamson lived with his lions in the 1980s. He is buried nearby, beside the grave of Terence, his brother, and Boy, his favourite lion.