Kenya, well known for safaris and vistas spilling with animals and tall yellow grass in its Maasai Mara, has other vistas not far away in its central and western regions. Here, shifting shapes range from red-dirt hills and black, loamy soil to thick forests and spikes of volcanic rock. Clouds top tall green mountains at noon and lakes turn pink at sunrise. In central Kenya, landscapes bait and switch, mile after mile. As shapes shift, surprises beckon.

North of Nairobi, one of Kenya's best-known resorts is Sweetwaters Tented Camp, located not far from Mt. Kenya to the east and Aberdare National Park to the west. Sweetwaters is a tranquil spread of luxurious tented cottages with thatched roofs that dot the wide plains that surround it, and it is home to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee and Animal Sanctuaries. At dawn, sunrise turns the grounds a golden red as ostrich and zebra graze on this private sanctuary of some 20,000 acres. They bend to the grass as you sit in a large dining room. Floor-to-ceiling windows front the vistas that look like a movie.

Originally run as a farm by Lord Delamere, one of Kenya's better-known early colonials and friend to author Isak Dinesen, author of "Out of Africa," Sweetwaters is unusual because of its Chimpanzee Sanctuary started in 1993, a collaboration of the Kenya Wildlife Services and the Jane Goodall Institute. More than 200 acres are now home to 40 chimps that were brought here from all over Africa. Poco, once confined to a cage for nine years, now romps and clowns at visitors. A group of smaller and younger chimps live nearby in their own sanctuary across the river that divides the two areas.

Game drives and visits to the sanctuaries are easily booked at the resort. The landscape is flat and scrubby, reminiscent of Tsavo East and Tsavo West parks further south. Impala, zebra, giraffes, elephants, gazelle, cranes and brilliantly colored starlings call this home. Leopards do, too, but are rare. Small red-billed birds ride on a giraffe's long neck. Ticks vanish. The giraffe continues loping the flat plains.

Further north, the landscape turns hilly. Deep into the sloping red mountains and valleys grown with forests of acacia trees is IL Ngwesi Eco-Lodge, perhaps Kenya's most unusual respite. A favorite of Prince William, this is a sanctuary in the Ndare Valley that is so natural, it eludes the eye from the dirt roads below. Not too far from Samburu National Park, it offers 5-star accommodations that consist of six thatched cottages (called bandas) and maximum, 17 guests. It is a conservation project built, owned and run by the local Maasai tribe.

Nestled into the Mukogodo Hills across from tall red rock mountains, IL Ngwesi was built by hand by the Maasai who live in villages nearby. Young Maasai warriors carried rocks and boulders up the steep hills. James Ole Kinyaga, a Maasai who heads customer relations and arranges excursions and tours of the Maasai village in the valley, explains how IL Ngwesi came to be.

Today, he is "a good friend" of Prince William who has visited here five times. Likewise, James, who speaks near-perfect English, has visited London to tell about his people's conservancy project. "I was there for a week and thought it was a life," he says with a smile. The Prince's preferred cottage, he notes, is the one closest to the watering hole for elephants. In that particular cottage, the bed can be rolled out onto the terrace.

British Broadcasting Corp. World Television filmed a special on IL Ngwesi, and they were smart to do so. You walk into your cottage across a swinging bridge hewn from local trees. There is no wall on the front of your large room where the view spreads wide across the savannah below. The only sounds are of wind and animals — a herd of 30 elephants by day, sometimes a lone leopard in the morning. IL Ngwesi is total, uninhibited immersion into nature, as far perhaps from civilization as you'll find in Kenya.

Driving farther west, a land of lakes and flamingoes emerges in Kenya's northwest region. A few hours drive north of the small city of Nakuru are two large lakes, the only freshwater lakes in the Rift Valley. In the middle of one, Lake Baringo, sits another haven. Island Camp is a resort on Ol Kokwe Island, a series of thatched roofed cottages dotting the hills above the lake where you are surrounded by water and hundreds of species of birds.

Perrie Hennessy is owner and manager of Island Camp, having been a managing director of the Lonrho Co. which owns some of Kenya's finest hotels, including Mt. Kenya Safari Club, The Ark, Mara Safari Club and the Norfolk in downtown Nairobi. Hennessy has been in Kenya 20 years. He is content. "I'm awestruck every morning I wake up," he says. For birdwatchers, this area is near paradise. Hennessy points out that one-third of the world's nearly 4,000 species of birds can be seen in Kenya. On this lake, he says, 350 species can be seen in 24 hours.

It takes a small motorboat to land at Island Camp, and occasional crocodiles, looking like knuckled wood, rest near the lakeshores. The resort's swimming pool is recommended; its dining is superior. A trip to nearby Lake Bogoria National Park is also recommended. Flamingoes turn its shores into dappled pink.

The vistas turn green farther west, very green. The city of Kisumu sits on Lake Victoria in the far west. A few hours north is a thick forested paradise where colobus monkeys leap high above through the top branches of tall, lush trees, and a retreat, formerly a private home, is situated on pristine lawns and gardens carved out of the forest in 1948. A sawyer from South Africa, Bob Turton, was the original owner of the clapboard main house (individual cottages have since been added) and built this haven for his wife.

The Kakamega Forest and Rondo Retreat Centre deep inside it are also unique in Kenya. Billed as a "Christian sanctuary for nature," it is located in the country's only rainforest where hundreds of species of birds and butterflies are easily spotted on guided nature walks from the Centre. No alcohol is served. Designed as a retreat, Rondo is a place of reflection and solitude. English country decor and fine home cooking complement its serenity. The world of big game seems thousands of miles away.

Slowly, the verdant green tea plantations reappear on the drive back to Kisumu. Women, as seen in the countryside all over Kenya, dress in colorful wraps of vivid printed cotton called lesos. The women strap bundles of wood, baskets of tealeaves or large plastic containers of water on their backs. They tuck children in cloths tied around their chests. They walk along dirt roads. When the city of Kisumu appears, its cluster of buildings looks foreign.

Flying back to Nairobi, you remember the shifting vistas of solitude, each different, scattered through the heart of Kenya's valleys, mountains, lakes and forests. You remember IL Ngwesi further back, and you smile. Heaven has a face.

IF YOU GO

Most major airlines fly from the U.S. to Kenya via Europe. Connecting flights are out of Amsterdam, London, Paris, Zurich and Dubai.

Sweetwaters Tented Camp. www.serenahotels.com. Twin/double rooms: Peak season (Feb., July, October and Christmas/New Year's week), $485; Low season (April, May), $275; other months, from $300.

IL Ngwesi Eco-Lodge. www.ilngwesi.com, from $240 per person, including meals.

Island Camp Baringo. www.eihr.com/baringo. Double, $305, including meals.

Rondo Retreat Centre. www.rondoretreat.com. From $115, per person, including meals.

Mary Martin Niepold is a freelance travel writer. To find out more about Mary Martin Niepold and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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