Nairobi — Deep in the ancient forest, is this lodge, build in the shape of Biblical Noah's wooden vessel

The spotted sphinx sits in sculpted stillness, so still on the sun-bleached golden grass of the open canopy of the forest, that at first glance, I take it to be a piece of log jutting out of the ground. But it's the leopard taking in the last rays of the sun before darkness descends on the mountain range that stretches almost 110 kilometres reaching heights of 13000 feet in the Naivasha-Nakuru-Nyeri triangle.

I've never seen a leopard in the Aberdares and to come upon one so close to the road is magic. It turns its head, stares at us and after a few minutes' contemplation, stands, stretches and walks away into the hidden secrets of the forest just as two enormous buffaloes make an appearance at the far end of the glade.

The cool air of the highlands is tantalisingly refreshing. A clearing by a vale reveals our abode for the night. It's the Ark and just to add more drama to this photographic opportunity, another pair of buffaloes appears out of the bush. Click, click and Peter Mwangi, our driver guide from the Aberdares Country Club drives us on. But soon we stop again. This time it's the Martial Eagle atop an ancient tree. It is one of the largest and most magnificent eagles of the African savannahs. We forget about time and dwell in its mystical charm enjoying the moment until the bird spreads its massive wings and takes to the air.

Noah's Ark was built to save the animals from the flood. Ours stands in the middle of a remnant ancient forest, built in the fabled shape of Noah's Ark, a wooden vessel with an arched roof, and enormous windows facing the Yasabara Waterhole, one of the largest mineral licks on the Aberdares.

It's this waterhole that everyone's glued to. Once the sun sets, the spotlights flood the natural arena casting a dramatic stage for the night's phantoms appearing out of the veiled darkness of the forest. A herd of elephants walks in. The cute, baby probably only a few months old kicks the sides of the salient for the salted earth. The old matriarch with the wizened skin is more composed, elegantly sucking in bits of the earth to pour into her mouth. In the chill of the outside deck, you can hear the tusks hit against each other while overhead a full moon casts a beautiful silver sheen. The elephants move to the waterhole where yellow billed ducks and the pestering coypu swim.

A rhino steps into the spotlight and walks towards the Ark. There's animated whispering from behind. It's the rhino rangers stationed at the Ark to monitor the sightings of the rhinos visiting the waterhole.

"That's Ann," they say. "She's pregnant."

"How do you know which one it is?" I ask.

"She's clean," replies Mohamed Lama the rhino ranger who's been watching rhinos on the Aberdares for six years. "She has no scratches or ear notches."

Mohamed and his colleague, Solomon Kinywa, then give me the spiel of what's required of a rhino ranger.

"We record the rhinos that visit the Ark waterhole," says Mohamed. The Aberdare range has an estimated 60 to 70 indigenous black rhinos, living close to the roof of the earth.

The waterhole is busy tonight. We wander from the top deck to the middle and then the bottom lookout point. Three limping hyenas come to harass Ann, trying to get a bite of her backside. It seems to be a game of sorts because every time they close in on her, she turns and faces them, sending them fleeing. Ed, Eddy and Shenzi as they are called in Walt Disney's "Lion King" try the same on the elephants and after a while wander off into the bushes.

There's coffee and tea served inside to keep the chill at bay. A rhino's head is stuck above the fireplace giving the date of her death as 6 May 1979. Joseph Mutongu, the naturalist gives the story of the rhino.

"It was a female who had come to the waterhole with her calf and found an elephant with her calf there already. The two calves got into a fight. The mothers got involved and the elephant trumpeted bringing the rest of the herd to the waterhole. They killed the rhino and then went into the forest and returned with twigs to bury it with."

"What happened to the rhino calf?" I ask mesmerised.

"It was taken to the Nairobi Orphanage and then returned here later."

I step out onto the open deck to breathe in the cold mountain air to retire only when my eyelids can't stay open.

The night glides by with whispers of the wind and the chant of the night animals and soon it's dawn. The eastern sky is painted with flames of red and orange of a sun yet to rise and the massif of Mount Kenya profiled against it. It's a dramatic setting and cameras click away.

It seems I missed the call to see the giant forest hog, one of the last biggish animals that remained undiscovered until 1904 in Kenya. Sam Gitahi, a colleague wandering out on the deck at 2 am after a heavy session of reading documents, sees the hog.

"Are you sure it wasn't a hippo?" I ask jealously at breakfast because I've never seen a forest giant hog.

"Couldn't be a hippo," Mutongu interrupts. "There are no hippos on the Aberdares. It's too cold for them."

One of the reason's for the hogs rare sightings was due to the overpopulation of lions in the park. Many lions were got rid of to stop them from devouring the rare species found in these ranges.

Fact File

The Aberdare mountains have a huge range of places to stay at depending on your budget. There's everything from camping, self-catering houses on the moorland to luxury lodges on the salient. There's so much to see and do in the park from scaling the highest peak, Ol Donyo Lesatima to trout fishing in the crystal clear streams.

There are many gates that lead into the park. Get a map from the KWS and don't forget your Smart Card. Depending on which side of the park you drive in from, the distance ranges from 120 to 150 kilometres north of Nairobi.