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Borana Lodge is home to the Dyer family for three generations and the name Borana comes from the native Boran cattle farmed on these arid grasslands. Borana Lodge is set on the edge of the Samangua Valley with panoramic views of Mount Kenya and Kenya's Northern Frontier. The property is a small, luxurious lodge, situated on a 35,000-acre ranch, 16 miles north of the equator, at an altitude of 6,500 ft. The area is a haven for a wide diversity of wildlife, including lion, elephant, Jackson's hartebeest, buffalo, reticulated giraffe, Patas monkeys and great herds of antelope roaming the plains, while the cool forest shelters bushbuck, colobus monkeys and leopard. Borana is a working ranch, named after the doe-eyed Borana cattle.
Borana Lodge was built in 1992 by local artisans. Only local building materials and dead wood from the ranch were used in its construction. The result is a supremely comfortable and luxurious lodge which is totally in keeping with its surroundings; it seems to have grown organically from the rocks on which it was built. Borana Lodge has 8 large double rooms. Of these 4 are interconnecting-family rooms others are 2 separate twins & 2 separate doubles. 16 guest beds (four doubles and four twins) plus two twin guide rooms (four beds). The family cottage allows for up to two additional small children.
Borana lodge overlooks a dam which fills with the floodwater flowing off the surrounding hills. It is the local watering hole for all the wildlife in the area so there is constant activity for the guests to watch. There is also a game blind built right on the edge of the dam so that visitors may go down and see the activity at close range: elephants swimming is a favorite. The nights are cool and there are fires in the rooms every night of the year. The clear view of the occasional snow and permanent small glaciers on Mount Kenya is a wonderful contrast to the huge panorama of mountains and desert to the North.
