Decades ago, Meru National Park in Kenya was a virtual wasteland, haunted by poachers who decimated the wildlife population. However, after a 5 year restoration period that began in 2000, the poachers are out and the animals have returned. If you’re lucky, you could see lions, leopards, cheetahs, hippos, antelopes and even rhinos.

This park is also the final resting place of Elsa the Lioness, made famous in the book and movie Born Free. Meru is the park where she was eventually released. Although Elsa went on to start a family of her own in the park, she later became ill and died. Her cubs, too young to fend for themselves successfully, began preying on local livestock and had to be moved to a different park for their own protection.

For a long time, Meru simply wasn’t worth visiting, but it’s definitely well-worth spending some time there now. The animals have returned, but the park has dropped off of most tourists’ radars. Frommer’s recently named it one of the best parks in Kenya, but warned that “Such alluring potential solitude is unlikely to last, though, so make this a priority if you’d like to get a pre-development glimpse of African wilderness.”

To visit Meru, you’ll need a passport, valid for at least 6 months after the date you plan to enter Kenya, and a Kenyan visa. You can get a Kenyan visa at airport if you’re a US citizen, but don’t expect the process to be quick. It’s best to get one ahead of time, as waiting around is the last thing you’ll want to be doing after your long journey.

Here are the required documents for a Kenyan tourist visa:

• 1 Kenyan visa application form

• 1 passport photo

• A copy of your travel itinerary

Kenyan visa application forms are required to be typed. No matter how neat your handwriting is, you still need to go the Kenyan Embassy’s website, fill out the form online and print it.

RushMyTravelVisa makes getting a Kenyan visa easy. We’ll walk you through the paperwork, make sure you have everything you need and drop your visa application off at the appropriate embassy or consulate for the fastest possible processing.

Apply for your Kenyan visa today!

Tags: Kenya, Kenya visa, Kenyan visa

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 12th, 2011 at 12:12 am and is filed under Destinations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.