DAY 1 - NAIROBI – OL PEJETA. (208 km – appx. 4 hrs.)
7:00 am – Your Unscripted Safaris driver/guide will come to your hotel, the international airport, or another place of your choosing to pick you up in a private 4 x 4 Jeep. Climb aboard and your two-week safari begins!Heading north, we’ll pass Mt. Kenya on our way to Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
At the park, you’ll find a wonderful assortment of large and small game – all of the “Big Five” and also more rarely seen species like the African wild dog and the chimpanzee. We can visit the special rhino sanctuary, protecting these rare and endangered creatures like Naji and Fatu.
DAY 2 - OL PEJETA – SAMBURU NATIONAL RESERVE.(131 Km – Appx. 2.5 hrs.)
Take a scenic route via the central highlands to the samburu National Reserve in the semi-arid northern frontier of Kenya. Samburu, Shaba and Buffalo springs game reserves are a place of endless skies, dust-red plains and palm-fringed rivers. The reserves lie on the fringes of the vast and arid desert once known as the Northern Frontier District.
The combined landscape of the Samburu game reserve features rocky battlements, craggy scarps, dry river beds and fallen boulders rising out of the thorn scrub against a backdrop of the far-distant hills and the great red Table Mountain known as Ololokwe.
DAY 3 - FULL DAY AT SAMBURU NATIONAL RESERVE
Day spent at the Samburu game reserve with game viewing drives. Game viewing is concentrated along the Ewaso Nyiro River, the lifeline of this semi desert environment. You can explore further the adjacent Shaba & Buffalo springs reserves and get to swim at the Buffalo springs natural pool.
DAY 4 - SAMBURU – ABERDARE PARK (221 Km – Appx. 4 hrs.)
Aberdare Park is different – not your usual African safari with its sun-baked savannah or rolling hills. Here we’re up-country – think rich green forests, waterfalls, and mountain lakes. Even our lodging is different here – you’ll be staying in a “Tree Lodge”, high above the park’s forests and its moorlands. From your balcony look for elephants, hyenas, buffalo, warthogs, and monkeys, strutting or scampering out from the forest to the nearby watering holes.
Though not too common, there have been sightings of rarities like the golden cat, giant forest hog, and the bongo, an unusually large antelope.
DAY 5 -ABERDARE – LAKE NAIVASHA ( 88 km. Approx. 3 hrs.)
Our 4 x 4 will next take us to lovely Lake Naivasha, a freshwater retreat with surrounding green lands harboring antelope, zebra, and more. Want to go on a bicycling safari? Nearby Hell’s Gate Park offers the chance to do just that! Pedal past zebra, giraffe, and antelope for a very unique perspective as they graze just feet away.
DAY 6 - LAKE NAIVASHA – MASAI MARA (285 km Appx. 5-6 Hrs.)
Let’s begin our day with a fun boating safari over the lake’s smooth waters, gliding by curious hippos as we take in the grazing impala and buffalo on the shore.
More explorations await at the close-by Crescent Island Game Sanctuary. This private reserve treats us to quiet closeup views of waterbuck, wildebeest, gazelle, and much more in this special out-of-the-way park.
We’ve had a busy week so far, but our African safari is about to get a lot more intense. Get ready for Kenya’s most popular park, the world-famous Masai Mara National Reserve.
After we arrive at the park, we should have time for an afternoon game drive. You’ll get a feel for this green sprawling park, adorned with Africa’s distinctive acacia trees. The Mara is a busy ecosystem, one of the richest in East Africa. During your time here don’t be surprised to see great numbers of wildlife in a variety not experienced elsewhere.
DAY 7 - FULL OF DAY OF GAME DRIVES AT MASAI MARA.
Today is a day of unlimited safari action. You will have the opportunity to take part in as many game drives as you wish. The Masai Mara is famous for its many prides of lions, leopards, and cheetahs, plus uncountable grazers. During the season of the Great Migration (July – October) get ready to witness the largest movement of animals on the planet. You’ll be treated to immense herds of wildebeests, zebras, gazelle, and even more flooding into the park from the neighboring Serengeti.
We will visit the Mara River, site of the great herds’ crossing where they must traverse the treacherous currents and even more threatening crocodiles that lay in wait. Of course, most of the crossing wildlife makes it through but the drama here is unmatched. And then, once in the park, these masses of migrating animals must evade the numerous big cats that depend on them for their own survival.
We offer several optional experiences to enhance your safari. Enjoy a cultural moment with the local Maasai people. Visit their village and learn about these pastoral people closeup. And perhaps get some of their beaded handiwork as souvenirs.
Ever been on a balloon safari? Take an optional early morning hot air balloon over the park as the land and the animals come to life in the dawning light of the new day. Your driver/guide will be happy to arrange this once-in-a-lifetime moment.
DAY 8 - MASAI MARA – SERENGETI (139 Km – Appx. 3 – 4 hrs.)
Let’s enjoy one more game drive through this bountiful reserve before we cross the border into Tanzania to visit another world-class park, Serengeti National Park. Remember all those wildebeests and zebra herding into the Masai Mara? This is the park from which they came, searching for taller grasses and water for their survival.
The Serengeti is immense with boundless wildlife, big cats and elephants by the thousands, and grazers… up to several million. We will have many opportunities to view this wildlife over our three days in this immense park.
DAY 9 - FULL OF DAY OF GAME DRIVES AT SERENGETI
Today, we will have plenty of time to explore the reaches of this world-famous reserve. Besides the big cats, zebras, and wildebeests, we’ll be looking for all manner of wildlife such as honey badger, otter, African wild dog, mongoose, monkey, eland, impala, hippo, and warthog.
Should you be here during the calving season, (January – March) prepare to witness the most amazing scene of up to 500,000 wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle newborns dropping onto the fields. If you wish, we will also explore the park’s forests and marshlands looking for hippos and crocodiles.
DAY 10 - SERENGETI – NGORONGORO (227 Km – Appx. 4 – 5 hrs.)
Our expedition continues as we turn toward another wonder of the world, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area with its magnificent caldera basin. Along the way, we will make a stop at Olduvai Gorge, perhaps the greatest archeological site in the world. Great caches of early humankind’s tools and artifacts have been discovered here, illustrating our physical and social development from millions of years ago.
Arriving at the Ngorongoro Crater, we’ll take in the vast expanse of the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera – 263 sq km (101 sq mi). This ecosystem is cut off from the rest of Africa, filled with green woodlands, swamp, and grasslands that is home to over 25,000 animals.
We’ll descend the steep crater walls in our Jeep and spend an action-filled day tracking for big cats, black rhinos, buffalo, and even pink flamingoes on the shores of Ngorongoro’s Lake Magadi. As the day begins to wane, we’ll head back up the crater and take in one of Ngorongoro’s spectacular sunsets at the crater’s rim.
DAY 11 - NGORONGORO – TARANGIRE OR LAKE MANYARA (180 Km – Appx. 4 hrs.)
Tarangire Park
You will enjoy this lightly touristed park as it is short on other safari-goers and long on wildlife. This park even has its own smaller migration – about 250,000 animals. Look for lions, leopards, elephants, impalas, warthogs, ostriches, and lots more.
And during your game drives here you can’t miss the park’s famous baobab trees – a highly unusual species with an inverted trunk and wild branches that resemble a root structure. The poor tree appears like it was planted upside down.
Lake Manyara Park
Another lightly touristed park, Lake Manyara delights its visitors with its signature flocks of bright flamingoes feeding at the lake’s shoreline, creating a living carpet of fluttering pink feathers. The birdlife here is rich and you’ll also find egrets, spoonbill, and heron.
The park’s wooded areas are just as enchanting, gifted with Africa’s very special acacia trees. And sometimes if you look up, you’ll find resting felines on the acacia branches. The park is known for these very unique tree-climbing lions!
DAY 12 - TARANGIRE/MANYARA – AMBOSELI PARK (255 Km – Appx. 4 hrs.)
Today we will return to Kenya and head to its second most popular reserve, Amboseli Park, resting near the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. On route, the snow-capped peak of the great peak will be our beacon, guiding us to the park.
Often called the “Land of the Giants”, Amboseli is home to a multitude of elephant families which you are guaranteed to see as they amble to their favorite feeding spots and watering holes. The park hosts all the “big five”, so we’ll also be tracking for lions, leopards, buffalo, and rhinos during our stay here.
DAY 13- FULL DAY OF SAFARI ACTION AT AMBOSELI
As with the Masai Mara and Serengeti, this is a day of unlimited game drives. Explore as much as you wish.
Amboseli is a compact park which makes game spotting easier as the rangers are well-informed about where certain wildlife can be seen. Besides the big game, we’ll undoubtedly discover some of the smaller species as they roam the park, like zebra, fox, monkey, baboon, and more. The reserve is also known for its variety and number of avian life – look for heron, falcon, eagle, and the Egyptian goose accenting the skies and the marshes here.
An ideal place to spot the animals and birdlife is on Observation Hill, an excellent vantage point that we’ll drive up to view the park’s wild inhabitants in all directions. Towards evening, we may be lucky and the mists covering Kilimanjaro’s snowy summit could part revealing one of Africa’s most memorable sights.
DAY 14 - AMBOSELI – NAIROBI: (250 KM: APPROX. 4-5 HRS.)
Early pre-breakfast game viewing drive in search of the predators and grazers.
Extra exit game viewing drive as you leave Amboseli.
