ABERDARE COUNTRY CLUB BRINGS HORSE RIDING BACK
The Aberdare Country Club, a favourite of this correspondent for many decades already, has since the re-opening last year seen its fortunes rise and aficionados return in their droves. Set in over 1.300 acres of a private game sanctuary, the club features a 9 hole ‘safari golf course’ where impala and warthogs have been known to deflect balls, or monkeys run off with them, thankfully both events on the rarer side.
When last reporting about what has been going on at the Aberdare Country Club, the owners, Ugandan based Marasa Africa, the hospitality arm of the Madhvani Group, were embarking on putting the finishing touches on the stables and procure horses, an activity shelved under previous owners Fairmont Kenya, which had in fact closed the club and only retained it as the lunch base for guests destined for sister property The Ark.
It can now be reported in breaking news that the Aberdare Country Club has just re-launched horse riding, currently offering 5 horses for guests, who will be accompanied on every trip by an experienced guide.
Richard Hodgson, General Manager – and well known in Uganda where he has served for over a decade at the Mweya Safari Lodge before moving on to open the Chobe Safari Lodge, in a communication to this correspondent wrote: ‘Five horses are available and guests can ride solo or be accompanied by a syce. There are no predatory animals in this wildlife-teeming sanctuary’, the latter comment clearly aimed at those worried they may run, or rather ride, into the middle of a pride of lions. The main game on the sanctuary are gazelles, zebras, warthogs, giraffes and monkeys, ever present and making way for the riders of course. The most impressive residents from the animal kingdom at the Aberdare Country Club however are no doubt the peacocks, which greet arriving guests, and at night, with their eerie calls, often have guests peep through the curtains to see what is going on outside their cottage, only to see fog rising from the valley below – Hitchcock atmosphere close up and personal for sure. Horse riding can be prebooked as an activity and during peak months is probably very advisable to avoid disappointment, as there is keen interest of course from Kenyan residents coming to Mweiga for the weekend. For more information about the Aberdare Country Club visit www.aberdarecountryclub.com or read this correspondent’s main article, written when the club just re-opened last year, via https://atcnews.org/2012/09/11/turning-75-years-the-aberdare-country-club-gets-a-new-lease-of-life/
The Madhvani Group has a close affiliation to equestrian sports, offering Uganda’s only Polo Ground at Kakira, their main base outside Jinja where regular tournaments are being staged, with members of the Madhvani family of course among the players.
