Best
of Kenya Camping (ITSC 55) 11
DAYS MASAI MARA/ LAKE NAKURU/SAMBURU/AMBOSELI/TSAVO EAST/TSAVO
WEST
Day
1: Nairobi/ Masai Mara
We will pick you from your hotel after breakfast; thereafter
depart for Masai Mara game reserve stopping at the view point
of the Great Rift Valley and at Narok town for lunch. Arrive
in time for a late afternoon or early evening game drive in
this park that is essentially the northern extension of Tanzania’s
Serengeti national park as an artificial border separates
the two. Dinner and overnight at the campsite.
Day
2: Masai Mara
This will be a day of tracking game with your guide, after
an early breakfast. The Mara’s landscape is scenic savannah
grassland on rolling hills which enables the reserve to attract
sufficient rainfall to maintain and support a large population
of herbivores, together with the predators that follow. You
will be served your picnic lunch at the hippo pool where with
luck you can spot hippos and crocodiles at a close distance.
Return to the campsite for dinner and overnight.
Day
3: Masai Mara
After breakfast proceed on another game viewing session returning
back to the campsite for lunch. After lunch you will have
the option to go for a game drive or at extra cost, visit
a nearby Masai village to see their nomadic lifestyle and
a nature walk with our armed Masai guide. All activities will
end at the campsite in the evening where you will retire for
the night after dinner.
Day
4: Masai Mara/ Lake Nakuru
Depart the Mara region for Nakuru after your final game drive.
The drive offers panoramic views of Lake Naivasha from the
main highway. Arrive in Nakuru in time for dinner and overnight.
Day
5: Lake Nakuru/ Samburu
Wake up to an early morning game drive in Lake Nakuru national
park. Flamingos and other water birds that thrive in a salt-water
environment can be seen. With luck you may track the white
rhino and the Rothschild’s giraffe which both have endangered
species status. The park is 188km and is a home to various
antelopes, grazers like warthog, waterbuck and the Cape buffalo.
After game drive, depart Nakuru for samburu via the Thompson
falls which are named after Joseph Thompson, one of the first
European explorers who walked from Mombasa to Lake Victoria
in the 1880’s. Lunch will be at Nanyuki town which is
at the foot hills of Mt.Kenya. Arrive in Samburu in the evening
with a game drive enroute to the campsite where you will retire
for the night after dinner.
Day
6: Samburu
Morning and afternoon game drives in Samburu with a lunch
and leisure break in the mid afternoon. The reserve is a home
to rare drought resistant animals that are peculiar to the
semi arid region north of the equator. These include the reticulated
giraffe, grevy’s zebra, the beisa Oryx, gerenuk and
the blue shanked Somali ostrich. Samburu Is dry most of the
year but is watered by the Ewaso Nyiro River which rises in
the Aberdares and drains in the Lorian swamp north of Shaba
National park reserve. All meals and overnight at the campsite
Day
7: Samburu/ Amboseli
After breakfast depart for Amboseli via Nairobi. In clear
weather, you may see the peaks of Mt. Kenya, the highest Mountain.
You will also by-pass very pleasant countryside with coffee
plantations. Lunch will be taken in Nairobi. Arrive in Amboseli
in the late afternoon with a game drive enroute to the campsite
for dinner.
Day
8: Amboseli
After breakfast, proceed on a game drive in this park which
lies in a dried-up lake bed. There are swamps and springs
fed by underground rivers from the melting snows or Mt.Kilimanjaro,
which give permanent water to the wildlife. The animals seen
here include lion, elephant, wildebeest, cheetah, buffalo,
plain game and the rare taita weaver and the gerenuk. The
animals are mainly found around the Ol Kenya swamp. If the
weather is clear and there is no low cloud cover, you may
see the peak of Mt.Kilimanjaro which forms a beautiful backdrop
to the park. The observation hill offers a view of the entire
park and beyond. Afternoon game drive will follow after lunch.
Rest of the meals and overnight at the campsite.
Day
9: Amboseli/ Tsavo West
In the morning, depart Amboseli for Tsavo west National park
with a lunch enroute. You will visit the shaitani lava flows
as the area where the park lies is of volcanic origin. The
mzima springs which contain 20 million tones of crystal- clear
water from the underground streams of the nearby kyulu hills
are an additional attraction; various aspects of marine life
including hippos,crocodiles,elephants and plains game can
be seen in this park. Dinner and overnight at the campsite.
Day
10: Tsavo West/ Tsavo East
A morning game drive will follow after breakfast and probably
view the rock hyrax, squirrels and mongooses as the park contains
a large population of these. Depart for Tsavo East National
park, with lunch enroute. Here, only the section south of
the galena river is open to the public for game drives, the
rest of the park serves as a wilderness for the animals to
retreat into. Here the dried up Aruba dam can be seen plus
crocodiles at the crocodile point below the lugard falls.
Dinner and overnight at the campsite.
Day
11: Tsavo East/ Nairobi
After breakfast, have your final game drive tracking plain
game such as zebra, antelopes, lesser kudu, ostrich and large
herds of elephants and kudu. This park is where the superintendent
John Lyall was taken from a steam locomotive by the man eater’s
lion (Man eaters of Tsavo) during the construction of Kenya
railways in 1901. Return to Nairobi with lunch enroute to
arrive in the evening.
