Down to earth holidays

Description

Kenya's wildlife is just magnificent, and this excellent mobile camping safari visits two of the country's best wildlife regions: Amboseli and the Masai Mara. You'll go game watching in the morning, game watching in the afternoon and game watching at night, and in diverse environments, giving you a fantastic opportunity to see an incredible range of mammals, birds and reptiles. And you'll get an insight into the Maasai way of life, with a visit to an authentic Maasai village.

You'll start with a night in Nairobi - but it's unlike any hotel you can imagine! You'll stay at Wildebeest Camp, a permanent tented camp with deluxe safari tents set in peaceful tropical gardens, home to hundreds of varieties of plants and birds. Just 2km from the city centre's shops and markets, it's the ideal place to start to commune with nature before we take you off for six days of unbeatable game viewing. But if the birds and plants aren't enough for you, you could choose to Make it Yours and get a head start on the ele watching, with a trip to Daphne Sheldrick's elephant orphanage. Or visit the giraffe centre or the Karen Blixen museum.

For the next six nights you'll camp in private conservancy areas bordering game parks, sleeping in two-man domed tents, on high density mattresses, and travel in comfortable 4x4 safari vehicles. Your driver is also your expert guide, and you will be cared for by camp staff at each location, while the cook will travel with you, keeping you well fed. You'll enjoy dinners around the campfire under the stars, swapping safari stories as the night sounds of the African bush echo around you.

You'll enjoy an evening game drive in the Selenkay Conservation Area, a truly wild, Maasai-owned 15,000 acre private game reserve within the Amboseli ecosystem. And we'll take you to Amboseli National Park, where you can get some great views of Kilimanjaro. But, of course, Amboseli is best known for its game - especially elephants, and we'll get you good and close to these magnficent creatures.

From here you'll head back to Nairobi to fly to the Masai Mara, one of the most famous wildlife regions in the world, and the site of the world's largest mass land migration, with around 2 million animals making the long and arduous journey from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Around July-October the reserve is packed with wildebeest, zebra and the big cat predators that they attract, but even outside of the migration period the game viewing is still magnificent with the Mara being one of the best places in Africa for excellent big cat sightings of lion, leopard and cheetah.

Detailed Itinerary

1. Day 1 (Sat): Arrive in Nairobi, where you'll be met and transferred to Wildebeest Camp.
2. Day 2 (Sun): Picked up from your hotel and transferred to the Selenkay Conservation Area in the Amboseli ecosystem (about 4 hours). Help set up camp and enjoy a late lunch. Take a rest after lunch and then go out on an afternoon game drive to explore the Selenkay Conservancy. All the big cats have been seen in the Conservancy as well as elephants and a wide range of species including large numbers of giraffes, zebra, and antelopes. This is a truly wild area of Maasailand which is only open to a limited number of visitors in order to protect the habitat and conserve the wildlife. A great range of wildlife can be seen here, including long-necked gerenuk gazelle, lesser kudu and African wildcat. Dinner and overnight in the camp at Selenkay. (BLD)
3. Day 3 (Mon): After an early breakfast spend the morning on a game drive in the Selenkay Conservancy and an escorted nature walk with Maasai guides, returning to camp for lunch. In the afternoon you will visit a nearby Maasai Village where you will get to known more about the way of life of a Masai before enjoying a night game drive with a spotlight to seek out the nocturnal animals as you head back to camp in the dark. Dinner and overnight in camp at Selenkay. (BLD)
4. Day 4 (Tues) Early breakfast and then drive through the bush into Amboseli National Park for a full day there with good views of Kilimanjaro and close-up observation of elephants, as well as many other species. Return to camp in Selenkay Conservancy later in the afternoon after a picnic lunch. Dinner and overnight in the camp at Selenkay. Overnight at the camp in Selenkay. (BLD)
5. Day 5 (Wed): After breakfast drive out of the Conservancy and back to Nairobi to transfer to Wilson Airport to catch the afternoon light aircraft flight to the Mara, arriving at 4pm. Upon arrival at the airstrip in the Mara you will be transferred to the Mobile Camp in Ol Kinyei Conservancy and shown to your tent, before heading out on an evening game drive in the conservancy to see some of the wildlife for which the Mara is famous. Return to camp for dinner and overnight.
6. Day 6 (Thurs): Wake up at dawn and enjoy an early game drive in the conservancy on the look out for the big cats, returning to camp for a late breakfast followed by an escorted nature walk and then lunch. In the afternoon enjoy another gamedrive in the Ol Kinyei Conservancy with a night drive as you head back to camp driving in the dark with a spotlight for the chance to see the nocturnal animals. Dinner and overnight at camp in Ol Kinyei. (BLD)
7. Day 7 (Fri): An early breakfast is followed by a full day in the Mara Reserve, taking a picnic lunch. Today you'll hope to see the Mara's many big cats as well as the diverse wildlife that inhabits the reserve. If you visit during the migration (roughly July to October) you can also expect to see vast herds of wildebeest and zebra. (BLD)
8. Day 8 (Sat): A final short early morning game drive in the conservancy followed by breakfast and then leave camp for the 4 hour drive back to Nairobi (160 miles, about 5 hours), arriving around 1pm. After nearly a week of mobile camping, you'll enjoy having the use of a hotel room for a good clean up, after which you will be taken to the airport for your onward journey or to connect to the overnight flight back to the UK (if selected). (B)