Taste of Kenya Safari, Gorilla Trekking & Pemba Island Getaway

Arrive at Entebbe Int’l airport, gateway to your thrilling East Africa safari; you will be transferred by our representatives to your hotel. The rest of the day is yours to acclimate to your new time zone as you prepare for the African adventure that awaits you. Overnight The Boma Hotel. Meal Plan: -

After breakfast, you will be transferred to Entebbe International Airport for your domestic flight to Western Uganda, Kihihi Airstrip. Depart at 07:00 hrs. or 07:45 hrs. and arrive at 08:45hrs. or 09:30hrs. On arrival at Kihili airstrip, you will be transferred by road for about 1hour to your Lodge arriving in time for lunch. Rest and before dinner explore the lodge grounds with its clear mountain stream or visit the local village. Overnight at Mahogany Springs Lodge. Meals Plan: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Arise early today and prepare for the highlight of your safari, an unforgettable encounter with the Gentle Giants!

After breakfast, you will be transferred to the national park offices where you will be allocated a gorilla family in groups of 8 as well as a gorilla tracking guide. After a pre-tracking briefing by your guide touching on the gorillas generally, your assigned gorilla family as well as appropriate safety precautions, you drive to the trailhead for the start of a thrilling adventure. Expect to walk between 2 and 8 hours in steep and sometimes muddy conditions with rain overhead, which can be tough and require a degree of (average) fitness. However, the thrill of coming face to face with a giant Mountain Gorilla silverback completely makes up for the effort!

Please remember to bring your passport for registration, appropriate, water proof hiking boots and a light rain coat. To protect from stinging nettles, we recommend long pants and long sleeved tops. A pair of old gardening gloves can help grabbing onto the vegetation while most hotels/lodges provide a walking stick that comes in very handy especially when hiking downhill.

A small waterproof backpack is an excellent idea to carry a light snack, bottled water as well as protection for your camera.

Upon sighting the gorillas, you spend the allowed one hour with them as they go about their daily life; feeding, moving, playing, raising their young and sometimes wrestling by the juveniles – it is a totally unique and unforgettable experience!

Thereafter, leave the habituated family in peace to retrace your steps back to the lodge. Overnight at Mahogany Springs Lodge. Meals Plan: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

After breakfast, bid farewell to the Forest as you transfer to the airstrip for your flight back to Entebbe Int’l Airport. On arrival our representatives will assist you to board another connecting flight to Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. On arrival at the Mara North Airstrip, you will be picked up by your driver guide and transferred to the Camp for lunch with game drive enroute.

Offbeat Mara is a small, traditional safari camp, situated within the 74,000 acre Mara North Conservancy (MNC). The area is full of wildlife yet far from any other camp or lodge.  MNC is only open to member camps and has a strict policy on game viewing etiquette.  For these reasons you will get a wholly exclusive experience that is otherwise becoming hard to find. Overnight at Offbeat Mara Camp. Meals Plan: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Special Activity:
Hot Air Balloon Safari
We highly suggest the balloon safari at dawn over the Maasai Mara with a champagne bush breakfast, from $550 per person.

Enjoy morning and evening game viewing drive in Mara. This is why you come to the Mara!  The wildlife in this area is extraordinary with huge numbers of plains game and with that, all the big cats.  Certain prides of lion in our area have become world famous thanks to the Big Cat Diary, and our own local pride, known as the Offbeat Pride are almost part of the family!  Our guides know every member of the pride and all the history that goes with them over the past 14 years.  Game viewing is exceptional all year round, but from July to October you will also get to experience the annual wildebeest migration in its hundreds of thousands. The 'Secret Season' of January to March is often as rewarding, with clear skies, short grass and the Loita wildebeest migration coming to Mara North Conservancy.

In the evening after game drive, Visit to a Maasai Village for a glimpse into the lives of this semi-nomadic tribe. Kenya recognizes over fifty tribes of native people. The Maasai were the dominating tribe at beginning of 20th century. They are one of the very few tribes who have retained most of their traditions, lifestyle and lore. In common with the wildlife with which they co-exist, the Maasai need a lot of land. Unlike many other tribes in Kenya, the Maasai are semi-nomadic and pastoral: they live by herding cattle and goats. A Maasai warrior is a fine sight. Those young men have, to the utmost extent, that particular form of intelligence which we call chic; daring and wildly fantastical as they seem, they are still unswervingly true to their own nature, and to an immanent ideal. Their style is not an assumed manner, nor an imitation of a foreign perfection; it has grown from the inside, and is an expression of the race and its history, and their weapons and finery are as much a part of their being as are a stag’s antlers. 

Activities

• Day and evening game drives (until 10 pm)
• Guided Bush Walks
• Cultural visits (village, market, local school during term time)
• Sundowners and bush meals
• Hot air balloon safaris (bookings must be made in advance, and this is an additional cost)
• Running with the Masai – the most beautiful exercise around

Overnight at Offbeat Mara Camp. Meals Plan: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

After early morning breakfast, checkout and you will be transferred to the airstrip for your flight to Saruni Samburu via Nairobi, arriving in the Samburu an hour and a half after take-off. On arrival your Saruni Samburu guide will meet you and transfer you to the lodge for lunch followed by game drive.

Saruni Samburu’s six luxury villas are open and spacious, heralding spectacular views over Kenya’s Northern Frontier District and Mount Kenya in the distance. The warm and welcoming hospitality makes for an intimate and exceptional experience. The lodge is revered for its innovative, eco-chic architecture and interesting design and décor, as well as its Italian-inspired cuisine. Guests can enjoy the vast panoramas from the dining and lounge area, the infinity pool and the Samburu Wellbeing Space. Saruni Samburu is the only lodge in Kalama Conservancy, which borders Samburu National Reserve, with 200,000 acres of unspoiled wilderness to explore and enjoy exclusively. You are guided from start to finish by Samburu warriors who are passionate about their land and their culture, learning first-hand about their fascinating customs and traditions and gaining ancient, local knowledge about the land and the animals – a truly authentic experience.

Activities and amenities:

day and night game drives, photographic hide, bush meals, guided walks, birdwatching, Samburu Wellbeing Space treatments (payable extra), picnics, two swimming pools, helicopter excursions (payable extra), Samburu cultural visits (payable extra), Saruni Shop, Reteti Elephant Sanctuary (bookable in advance & payable extra). Overnight at Saruni Samburu Lodge. Meals Plan: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Early morning game drive into Samburu National Reserve to seek out the ‘Samburu Special Five’: the reticulated giraffe, the Grevy zebra, the beisa oryx, the Somali ostrich and the gerenuk, all rare species that occur only in this part of the country, and look for its well-known larger wildlife including elephants, lion and leopard. Enjoy a picnic lunch before heading back to the lodge to relax for the afternoon.

Enjoy a complimentary half hour Back & Neck massage upon arriving back at the lodge at the Samburu Wellbeing Space.

Evening game drive in Kalama Conservancy ending with a bush dinner under the stars in the middle of the wilderness, and a night drive back to the lodge. The Samburu warriors dancing, candles and fire under the vast African skies, make this a truly magical experience, and one of the highlights of your stay. Overnight at Saruni Samburu Lodge. Meals Plan: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Following a lie-in and a hearty breakfast, depart Saruni Samburu accompanied by our Samburu guides, driving two hours north west to visit the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in nearby Namunyak Conservancy (visit payable & bookable in advance).

Arrive in time for the noon time feeding session of the elephants and other animals in residence. Learn all about their special milk formulas, ask the elephant keepers your questions and watch with joy as the hungry ellies come racing out for their bottles!

After some further observation time as the ellies play, bathe and go about their day, head towards Saruni Rhino, a 2-hour’s drive away in Sera Conservancy, stopping in a picturesque spot for a picnic lunch on the way.

Arrive in camp, or, head straight to the Rhino Sanctuary to start your exhilarating on-foot tracking adventure taking place late afternoon as the temperature lowers. Drive to within a short distance of the endangered black rhino, leaving the vehicle on foot to track the rhino in the safety of a guide and a ranger. Communication between rangers allow you to track as many rhinos as possible in the allotted time.

After an exhilarating, ‘up close and personal’ experience, game drive back to camp where a lantern-lit bush dinner awaits you in the idyllic setting of the dry river bed, as the night sounds reverberate around you. Overnight at Saruni Rhino Camp. Meals Plan: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Leave early morning with a picnic breakfast on a game drive to the nearby Fifty Wells (Kisima Hamsini) or the Singing Wells, where you will witness Samburu pastoralists watering and singing their uniquely recognised songs to their livestock at a series of natural wells, bringing water up from the depths as they have done for centuries. (Wells are seasonal).

Birders and non-birders alike will delight in the incredible spectacle that is thousands upon thousands of sand grouse dipping to take water in the natural wells and waterholes throughout Sera Conservancy, a truly astounding sight and sound show.

Return to camp and enjoy a refreshing dip in the cooling waters of the natural rock infinity pool overlooking the dry river bed surrounded by swaying doum palms as monkeys’ chirrup and play along.

Enjoy lunch in the shade of Swara House, with breath-taking views of a waterhole frequently visited by herds of elephants and other wildlife and birdlife.

Relax after lunch in the cool of your stone cottage (‘banda)’ reclining on your very own beach club style, sandy verandah watching the waterhole. For the adventurous thrill-seekers embark on a 2nd round of rhino tracking by returning to the Sanctuary to re-live the experience.

Bush ‘lugga’ dinner under the star-lit African skies before heading to bed for your last night in the remote wilderness of Kenya’s northern frontier. Overnight at Saruni Rhino Camp. Meals Plan: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Following breakfast in camp, or equipped with a picnic breakfast, leave early morning from Saruni Rhino for your departing onward flight to back to Nairobi. On the drive back to Kalama, enjoy one last time the incredible wildlife which call this immense community-owned and run conservancy home.

Capture the Giraffes

You touch down at Nairobi’s Wilson’s Airport, where you will be met by our representative and taken to Giraffe Manor.

Stay at Giraffe Manor

Experience as you enter the grounds of Giraffe Manor you will be greeted by our resident giraffes who roam the sanctuary surrounding this classic manor house. The giraffes are completely wild but enjoy interacting with guests, making this an experience unlike any other in the world. Giraffe selfie moments abound and you will have plenty of opportunities to photograph these striking creatures at close range. Our resident warthogs also make great subjects, as they shuffle around gobbling up treats dropped by the giraffe.

After lunch you can visit the Giraffe Centre (at extra a small cost) located within the Manor’s grounds or enjoy the spa facilities and relaxing surrounds of The Retreat where you’ll find our lovely pool, sauna and hot tub.

PLEASE NOTE: The giraffes at Giraffe Manor are wild and therefore we cannot guarantee interaction with them at any given time. Overnight at Giraffe Manor. Meals Plan: Breakfast

After early morning breakfast, check out and enjoy your day trip begins to Nairobi National Park for an exciting 4 - hour game viewing drive. The drive is timed to spot the big cats when they tend to be more active. Wide open grass plains and a backdrop of the city scrapers, scattered acacia bush play host to a wide variety of wildlife including the endangered black rhino, lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, buffaloes, giraffes and diverse birdlife with over 400 species recorded. After your game drive, we will exit the park and enjoy a short drive to the conservation center at the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. It is here that orphaned or injured baby elephants and rhinos are taken to rehabilitation in their natural habitats. Baby elephants of all ages delight guests as they feed and play. Feeding time is from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thereafter, we will head to Macushla Hotel for lunch. Overnight at Macushla House. Meals Plan: Breakfast

Bush and beach are relatively easy to connect in East Africa. In less than five hours, you will swap the wilderness of the plains for the exotic colors of the coast. It will be quite a journey to fly over the plains of East Africa and then descend onto the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar. Since the first Omani traders arrived over a millennium ago, the Spice Island of has been a revered travel destination. Zanzibar’s popularity has blossomed in recent years, but there is more than one island in the archipelago. After changing planes, you will hop north and land on the unspoiled Pemba Island. Tourism has hardly arrived here, so just a small handful of luxury lodges provide remote Indian Ocean getaways. Your lodge is only accessible by boat, and as soon as you arrive there will no need for shoes. Dip your ankles in the warm waters, lounge in your private plunge pool, and settle into island life. Overnight at Fundu Lagoon. Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Wake to the sound of gentle waves from your suite that is raised above the beach while your private plunge pool provides a perfect place to laze away the day. Access to the sand is done without shoes, and the beach comes from a tropical postcard. Coconut palms curl over the sand, coral reefs and exotic marine life is found just off shore, and the water has an alluring tone. For these four days, this is the perfect setting from which to drift away and there is virtually nothing to interrupt the tranquility. Fundu Lagoon is a small lodge and you will not have to share the white sand with many other guests. When the beach is only accessible by boat, you know you will be far from any crowds.

Set sail in traditional wooden dhows, the perfect vessel for enjoying sunset with a glass of champagne in hand. Snorkel off the beach and lose yourself in the vibrant marine world. Fundu Lagoon is close to some of the Indian Ocean’s finest dive sites and each day will offer you an opportunity to explore them. Perhaps one day you will walk around the island beneath the canopy of palms and across the hideouts of monkeys. On another, you will barbecue on the beach, fresh lobster and prawns with your feet in the soft sand. Each villa is generously spaced, so you can easily spend the whole day without encountering another person. Cocktails can be brought to the villa or your private pool, so it is easy to spend a day without encountering any other visitor. There is also a beautiful lounge and a restaurant area should you wish to relax over the main part of the beach. Overnight at Fundu Lagoon. Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Flying out of Pemba, you will be able to fully appreciate the beautiful views over the archipelago. You will admire how the water swirls as the soft greens merge with thick blues and then slip back into the tones of turquoise. Land in Dar es Salaam where you will connect onto your homebound departure. In the morning, you will have full use of the lodge’s facilities, so there is chance for one final massage or walk along the white sand.

Enjoy your Safari experience!!