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Jun 30, 2019, 01:02pm EDT |
'Born Free' Actress To Join Celebrations For 20th Year Of Kenya's Elsa's Kopje Safari Camp
Terri ColbyFormer Contributor
Happily telling stories about travel and discovery around the world.
The stone cottages are elegant and comfotrable at Elsa's Kopje, a safari lodge in Kenya's Meru... [+] National Park.
Terri Colby
British actress Virginia McKenna, who starred in the 1966 film "Born Free" more than 50 years ago, will be back in Kenya celebrating an anniversary there next month.
Elsa's Kopje, the Elewana safari lodge in Kenya's Meru National Park named for the orphaned lioness, welcomes McKenna to join guests at the lodge for its 20th anniversary. McKenna was there when it first opened in 1999.
Kenya's Meru National Park at sunset..
On July 4, 2019, Elsa's Kopje will present an early-evening screening of the movie and McKenna will join guests for dinner. The next day begins with a bush breakfast and a visit to Elsa's grave. The evening promises a gala dinner, under the stars, according to Elewana.
McKenna later went on to start the Born Free Foundation in 1984, an international wildlife charity aimed at protecting wild animals from captivity, among other missions.
Giraffes roam freely in Kenya's Meru National Park.
In its announcement, Elewana offered special rates for local residents, but noted that cottages at Elsa's Kopje in Meru are available at $729 per person per night for each adult sharing the room. The rate includes all meals and standard drinks, shared game drives, sundowners, bush breakfasts, fishing and transfers from the local air strips. Flights to and from Nairobi are extra. Larger family cottages are available for $2,605 per night for five people.
The cottages are delightful stone spaces--each with a large bedroom, sitting area, open-air verandah and spacious bathroom--in a setting that emphasizes the locale with endless views over the African landscape. A granite infinity pool and central dining area make Elsa's Kopje a stunningly elegant resort.
The movie was based on a 1960 book of the same name written by Joy Anderson about her experiences with gamekeeper husband George Adamson raising the orphaned lion cub Elsa and then releasing her into the wild.
The infinity pool at Elsa's Kopje safari lodge in Meru National Park.
The lodge has been credited with helping to save Meru National Park, which at one point made little income and was under threat of being turned into rice plantations. Now, the park showcases a thriving rhino sanctuary and is home to large elephant herds, hippos, lions and much bird life. Meru is recognized for having more diversity of species than any other park in East Africa.
Elsa's Kopje was my first bush stop on my first visit to the African continent several years ago. After getting picked up by a safari vehicle at the air strip, we headed to the cottages. And along the way we saw lions, elephants, giraffes, baboons and more birds than I could identify.
Giraffe in Meru National Park.
With open air dinners under the stars and the granite infinity pool complementing the amazing game drives, sundowner cocktails and bush breakfasts, the whole experience is magical.
For more information about Elsa's Kopje, check out the Elewana website.
A Chicagoan by birth and by choice, I'm happy to be on the road exploring new destinations, especially in February, often the grimmest of the city's winter months. I hold
A Chicagoan by birth and by choice, I'm happy to be on the road exploring new destinations, especially in February, often the grimmest of the city's winter months. I hold bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism, and have spent much of my career in news working for The Associated Press and Chicago Tribune. For the past decade, I've focused on exploring the world as a freelance travel writer and photographer. Highlights include tracking and photographing wild animals in Kenya, documenting the Monarch butterflies' overwintering grounds on a mountaintop in Mexico and spending a night in a tent in the Sahara desert. My stories have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun Times, USAtoday.com and Porthole magazine, among others. I'm also a dedicated reader (and sometimes reviewer) of literary fiction, and love to find myself immersed in a novel set in the place that I am visiting. You can find my blog at www.imsleepingaround.com.