Travel for Change Classic Kenya

Day 2: Today we will have a full day game drive with picnic lunch provided. There is a wide variety of animal and bird life seen at Samburu National Reserve. Several large game species common to Kenya’s northern plains can be found in abundance here, including the following dry-country fauna: gerenuk, Grevy’s zebra, oryx and reticulated giraffe. All three big cats known as the Maasai lion, Tanzanian cheetah and leopard can also be found here, as well as the elephant, Cape buffalo and Hippopotamus.

Other mammals frequently seen in the park include olive baboon, warthogs, Grant’s gazelle, Kirk’s dik-dik, impala, and waterbuck. The rhinoceros population is no longer present in the park due to heavy poaching. There are over 350 species of bird. These include grey-headed kingfisher, sunbirds, bee-eaters, Marabou stork, tawny eagle, Verreaux’s eagle, bateleur, vulturine guineafowl, yellow-necked spurfowl, lilac-breasted roller, secretary bird, superb starling, northern red-billed hornbill, yellow-billed hornbill, and various vultures including the palm-nut vulture. The Ewaso Ng’iro river contains large numbers of crocodile basks. Dinner and Overnight at Camp or Lodge.

Day 3: After breakfast, we will drive to Aberadre National Park, Arrive for lunch at Outspan or Aberdare Country club then transfer to Treetops Lodge or The Ark. Animals easily observed include the leopard, elephant, East African wild dog, giant forest hog, bushbuck, mountain reedbuck, waterbuck, Cape buffalo, suni, side-striped jackal, eland, duiker, olive baboon, black and white colobus monkey, and sykes monkey. Rarer sightings include those of the African golden cat and the bongo – an elusive forest antelope that lives in the bamboo forest. Animals such as the eland as well as spotted and melanistic serval cats can be found higher up in the moorlands. The Aberdare National Park also contains a large eastern black rhinoceros population. Visitors can also indulge in walking, picnics, in the rivers and camping in the moorlands. Even the bird viewing is rewarding, with over 250 species of birds in the park, including the endangered Aberdare cisticola, Jackson’s francolin, sparry hawk, goshawks, eagles, sunbirds. Dinner and Overnight at Treetops Lodge or The Ark.

Day 4: We will drive to Lake Nakuru National Park. Arrive Nakuru in time for hot lunch then have an afternoon game drive. Across the equator, southwards of Bogoria, lies the Rift valley’s most famous lake, Nakuru. It was know for its flamingos but years back the water level rose up and the flamingoes migrated to Lake Baringo and Bogoria. Lake Nakuru is also a rhino sanctuary, harbouring a population of over 40 black and over 60 white rhinos. Dinner and Overnight at Camp and Lodge.

Day 5: After breakfast, we will drive to Lake Naivasha, arrive with a guided walk at the Crescent Island including a boat. Kindly note there is the option of visiting Hells Gate National park instead of the Crescent Island. Lake Naivasha is particularly famous for its rich birdlife. More than 400 species have been spotted. The shores host abundant birdlife including pelicans, cormorants and fish-eagles with their haunting cry.  Hippo graze all over us at night then sleep under the acacia or rest in the water by day. Dinner and Overnight at Camp or Lodge.

Day6: After breakfast we will drive to Maasai Mara Game Reserve. Arrive Mara in time for hot lunch then have an afternoon game drive. This is the most visited and perhaps the most beautiful of all the country’s game reserves. Lying at an altitude of 1650m 5414ft it covers an area of 1,510 sq km (almost 600 sq miles) and forms the northern extension of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. The Mara is a Maasai word meaning spotted or dappled. It is a mosaic of rolling grassland dominated by red oat grass, small bush covered hills and along the Mara River and its tributaries flowing towards Lake Victoria, riverine bush and Forest. Dinner and Overnight at Camp or Lodge.

Day 7&8: Today we will have a full day game drive in Mara with picnic lunch provided. . All members of the “Big Five” (lion, leopard, African elephant, cape buffalo, and black rhinoceros) are found in the Maasai Mara. The population of black rhinos was fairly numerous until 1960, but it was severely depleted by poaching in the 1970s and early 1980s, dropping to a low of 15 individuals. Numbers have been slowly increasing, but the population was still only up to an estimated 23 in 1999.

Hippopotami and crocodiles are found in large groups in the Mara and Talek rivers. Leopards, hyenas, cheetahs, jackals, and bat-eared foxes can also be found in the reserve. The plains between the Mara River and the Esoit Siria Escarpment are probably the best area for game viewing, in particular regarding lion and cheetah.

As in the Serengeti, the wildebeest are the dominant inhabitants of the Maasai Mara, and their numbers are estimated in the millions. Around July of each year, these animals migrate north from the Serengeti plains in search of fresh pasture, and return to the south around October. The Great Migration is one of the most impressive natural events worldwide, involving some 1,300,000 wildebeest, 500,000 Thomson’s gazelles, 97,000 Topi, 18,000 elands, and 200,000 zebras. These migrants are followed along their annual, circular route by predators, most notably lions and hyena.

Antelopes can be found, including Grant’s gazelles, impalas, duikers and Coke’s hartebeests. The plains are also home to the distinctive Masai giraffe. The large roan antelope and the nocturnal bat-eared fox, rarely present elsewhere in Kenya, can be seen within the reserve borders. There is an option of visiting a local Maasai village. Dinner and Overnight at Camp or Lodge.

Day 9: We will have a sunrise game drive, drive back to the camp for breakfast then drive back to Nairobi.