We also arrange shorter trips for people who do not have enough time in Kenya or would have done other travels within Africa but would wish to visit the spactacular wildlife that our country hosts. Sample trip are:
2 Nights 3 Days to Amboseli
AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK
Great March
Amboseli lies immediately North West of Mt. Kilimanjaro, on the border with Tanzania. Amboseli was established as a reserve in 1968 and gazetted as a National Park in 1974. Amboseli National Park covers 392 km2, and forms part of the much larger 3,000 Km2 Amboseli ecosystem. Large concentrations of wildlife occur here in the dry season, making Amboseli a popular tourist destination. 6 communally owned group ranches surround it. The National Park embodies 5 main wildlife habitats (open plains, acacia woodland, rocky thorn bush country, swamps and marshland) and covers part of a pleistocene lake basin, now dry. Within this basin is a temporary lake, Lake Amboseli, that flood during years of heavy rainfall. Amboseli is famous for its big game and its great scenic beauty – Mt Kilimanjaro dominates the landscape.
3 DAYS AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK
Day 1. Amboseli – Depart Nairobi in the Morning for the flight to Amboseli, morning and afternoon game drive. All meals and overnight at a lodge or luxury tented camp.
Day 2. Full day in Amboseli with morning and afternoon game drive. All meals and overnight at a lodge or luxury tented camp.
Day 3. Early morning breakfast fly to Nairobi arriving at 0915 hours.
NB: This can be done as a driving instead of flying trip.
2 Nights 3 Days to the Masai Mara
MASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE
Cub Time
The Masai Mara is considered by many to be one of Kenya’s finest game reserves. The rolling grasslands offer ideal game viewing and photographic opportunities and rocky outcrops, which are favourite midday resting places for lion, for which the Mara is famous, break the grassy plains. Some of the other animals, which can be seen in and around this 700 square mile conservation area, include elephant, black rhino, buffalo, leopard, cheetah, wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle. Hippo and crocodile abound in the muddy brown waters of the rivers, which traverse this Reserve. One of the Mara’s main attractions each year is the astonishing spectacle of the annual migration of up to two million wildebeest, thousands of zebra and an escort of carnivores from the Serengeti plains, following the rains and succulent new grass. A costly trek as many of the lame, laggard and sick will fall prey to the ravening pack of predators and many more will die in the swirling flood waters trying to cross the Mara River. Once the rains have ended and the grass begins to wither the wildebeest turn south and head back to the Serengeti and beyond. The reserve with an area of 1510 km2 forms the northern part of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem and is famous for vast assemblages and migration of plains game and their associated predators. The park’s southern boundary is contiguous with Tanzania’s Serengeti National park.
3 DAYS MAASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE
Day 1. Maasai Mara – Depart Nairobi in the morning flight for Maasai mara afternoon game drive. Lunch, Dinner and overnight at a lodge.
Day 2. Maasai Mara – Early morning and afternoon game drive. All meals and overnight at a lodge or luxury tented camps.
Day 3. Early morning game, breakfast and depart to the airstrip for flight to Nairobi arriving at approximately 1200hrs.
NB: This can be done as a driving instead of flying trip.
2 Nights 3 Days to Samburu and Shaba Game Reserves
SAMBURU GAME RESERVE
Lioness Care
Samburu National Reserve lies 325 km north of Nairobi in the hot and arid fringes of the vast northern region of Kenya. The Reserve is within the lands of the colourful Samburu people, close relatives of the Maasai, and harbours a number of wildlife species rarely found elsewhere in any numbers. These include Grevy’s zebra, the reticulated giraffe and the Beisa oryx all species found only north of the equator. The long-necked gerenuk is a graceful antelope which spends much of its time in a bi-pedal stance seeking succulence among the withered scrub which dots this harsh terrain. Scenically and faunally dramatic, for most of the year Samburu is sere under the unsympathetic equatorial sun. But relief comes from the wide swathe of the Ewaso Ngiro River which rises some hundreds of kilometres to the west on the foothills of the Aberdares and which vanishes beyond Samburu in the recesses of the Lorian swamp. The river is at its best in the Reserve, broad and sluggish with a large population of crocodile seen on sandbanks at almost every bend. In the lower reaches, where permanent pools have formed as a tributary joins the river, are hippo. The river is fringed with giant acacias, figs and doum palms all of which provide shade and sustenance to the wildlife, which comes to water. Elephant roam the gaunt hills, which punctuate the scrubland and where occasional clusters of the vividly coloured desert rose challenge the arid surroundings. These elephant seek solace and contentment in the shallow waters of the river and from time to time a visitor finds herds bathing and drinking in a spectacle of unconscious pleasure.
3 DAYS SAMBURU NATIONAL RESERVE
Day 1; Samburu;
Depart Nairobi in the Morning to Samburu at the North rugged Semi desert region, through harsh contains some of the species rarely found elsewhere e.g. Reticulated giraffes, grevy’s zebra, kuchi, Beisa oryx’s, Somali Ostrich, genenuk, vulturine, guinea fowl among others. Arrive in time for lunch afternoon game drive. Dinner and overnight at a lodge.
Day 2; Samburu;
Full day in Samburu with morning and afternoon game drive, optional visit to Samburu villages. Meals and overnight at a lodge.
Day 3; Nairobi;
Pre-breakfast game drive, after breakfast depart for Nairobi arriving in the afternoon.
1 Night 2 days to Mt. Lodge
Great Hiking
MOUNT KENYA NATIONAL PARKMt Kenya is an imposing extinct volcano dominating the landscape of the Kenyan Highlands, East of the Rift. Mt. Kenya lies about 140 km North, North-East of Nairobi with its Northern flanks across the Equator. The mountain has two main peaks – Batian (5200m) and Nelion (5188m). The mountain’s slopes are cloaked in forest, bamboo, scrub and moorland giving way on the high central peaks to rock, ice and snow. Mt. Kenya is an important water catchment area, supplying the Tana and Northern Ewaso Ngiro systems. The park includes a variety of habitats ranging from higher forest, bamboo, alpine moorlands, glaciers, tarns and glacial morains. The park, which is also an International Biosphere Reserve, covers 715 km2, includes the Mountain and consists of all the ground above 3200m with two small salients extending lower down to 2450m along the Sirimon and Naro Moru tracks. Surrounding the park is Mount Kenya Forest Reserve with an area of approximately 2095 km2. For the hikers, there is trip that gets to the hikers summit.
Full day or half day in Nairobi
NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK.
"The King"
The 117-km2 Nairobi National Park is unique by being the only protected area in the world with a variety of animals and birds close to a major city. As expected, the park is a principal attraction for visitors to Nairobi. The park also serves many residents and citizens living in the city. The park has a diversity of environments with characteristic fauna and flora. Open grass plains with scattered acacia bush predominant. The western side has a highland dry forest and a permanent river with a riverine forest. In addition, there are stretches of broken bush country and deep, rocky valleys and gorges with scrub and long grass. Man-made dams have also added a further habitat, favorable to certain species of birds and other aquatic biota. The dams also attract water dependent herbivores during the dry season. The park has diverse birdlife with 400 species recorded. However all species are not always present and much depends on season. Northern migrants pass through the park primarily during late March through April. Nairobi National Park is one of the most successful of Kenya’s rhino sanctuaries that is already generating a stock for reintroduction in the species former range. Due to this success, it is one of the few parks where a visitor can be certain of seeing a black rhino in its natural habitat. To the south of the park is the Athi-Kapiti Plains and Kitengela Migration Corridor. These are vital areas for herbivores disperse over them during the rains and concentrate in the park in the dry season.
OVERNIGHT OR DAY TRIPS TO LAKE NAKURU OR LAKE NAIVASHA
LAKE NAKURU.
"Pink Lake" from Flamingos
Lake Nakuru is a very shallow strongly alkaline lake 62 km2 in extent. It is set in a picturesque landscape of surrounding woodland and grassland next to Nakuru town. The landscape includes areas of marsh and grasslands alternating with rocky cliffs and outcrops, stretches of acacia woodland and rocky hillsides covered with a Euphorbia forest on the eastern perimeter.
Menengai crater to the north, the bahati hills to the northeast bound the lake catchment, the lion hill ranges to the east, Eburu crater to the south and the Mau escarpment to the west. Three major rivers, the Njoro, Makalia and Enderit drain into the lake, together with treated water from the town’s sewage works and the outflow from several springs along the shore. Lake Nakuru was first gazetted as a bird sanctuary in 1960 and upgraded to National Park status in 1968. A northern extension was added to the park in 1974 and the lake was designated as a Ramsar site in 1990. The foundation of the parks food chains is the cyanophyte spirulina platensis is which can support huge numbers of lesser flamingo.
LAKE NAIVASHA.
The highest and purest of the Great Rift Valley lakes, Lake Naivasha lies approximately 80 kms west of Nairobi on the floor of the Rift. The Lakeshores are lined with fertile and flourishing horticultural farms and thousands of yellow barked acacias. Naivasha is home to more than 340 species of birds, has a resident population of hippo and small herds of plains game are found all around the shores. Bird and game viewing is by boat or on foot. The lakeshore was, for many years, the home of the late authoress Joy Adamson and it was here that she first raised Elsa, the lioness. Mount Longonot, an extinct volcano, lies just east of the Lake and Hell’s Gate National Park south east, with its challenging rock climbs, where game abounds and bird life includes the rarest of Kenya’s vulture population, the Lammergeyer, which nests on the cliffs.