14 Day Kenya & Tanzania Discoveries - Kenya & Tanzania Overland Safari
Day 1: Nairobi
Today is an arrival day and the day is spent at leisure to settle in from your flight or to enjoy one of the optional attractions and activities available in the city. Nairobi. Optional activities include trips to Karen Blixen Museum, Daphne Sheldrick Animal Orphanage, and Nairobi National Park, the Giraffe Centre, local craft markets and the Bomas of Kenya.
Accommodation: Hotel (twin-share)
Day 2: Nanyuki (B / L / D)
Leaving the hustle and bustle of Nairobi we head north, crossing the equator, before reaching the town of Nanyuki. Nanyuki, the gateway to the northern frontier district, is a country town founded in 1907 by English settlers as a trading centre for the ranches of the Laikipia district. Nanyuki is now home to the main base of Kenya's Air Force. It's popular amongst tourists because of it's proximity to impressive Mount Kenya, Kenya's highest peak at 5199m. It's also home to the Mount Kenya Safari Club, now a hotel, but in the 60's an exclusive club whose members included Winston Churchill, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.
Accommodation: Hotel (twin-share)
Day 3: Samburu National Reserve (B / L / D))
Leaving this old frontier town, we head north-west through the Kikuyu area around Mt Kenya to the Samburu National Reserve. We'll encounter the Masai's distant relatives, the semi-nomadic proud Samburu, tending their cattle along the way. The Samburu National Reserve is located on the northern bank of the Ewaso Ng'iro River (meaning 'River of brown water' in Samburu) which cuts a green swathe through the dramatic and rugged northern lands. The Samburu reserve is a relatively small reserve at just 104 km2. It is a remote and largely unspoilt reserve that attracts a wide range of animals because of the river, including three species that you will not see in Kenya's other major reserves. These are the gerenuk (a long necked antelope), the Grevy's zebra and the Reticulated giraffe. After settling into your lodge an afternoon game drive will be taken in this picturesque reserve.
Accommodation: Lodge (twin-share)
Day 4: Nakuru (B / L / D)
This morning we will embark on an early morning game drive in the Samburu National Reserve. The reserve contains a wide variety of animal life as well as over 350 varieties of bird life. The beauty of the region will ensure many excellent photographic opportunities.
Leaving the unique Samburu National Reserve, we retrace our path to Nanyuki before heading west towards the Great Rift Valley and the 4th largest town in Kenya and the capital of the Rift Valley Province, Nakuru. Two nights will be spent at Nakuru to allow for a full day excursion into nearby Lake Nakuru National Park.
Accommodation: Hotel (twin-share)
Day 5: Lake Nakuru National Park (B / L / D)
Today we head into Lake Nakuru National Park, a small park of only 168 km2, established in 1961. The key feature of the park is Lake Nakuru, an alkaline or Soda Lake, with an abundance of algae that attracts the vast quantity of greater and lesser flamingos that famously line the lake shore. The numbers vary depending on the water level, and when it's low, the lake almost turns pink. A truly spectacular sight! The park was established as a sanctuary for black and white rhino, which are often seen. We spend the day searching for these pre-historic looking beasts as well as the elusive leopard, encountering buffalo, giraffe, various antelope and the occasional hippo along the way.
Accommodation: Hotel (twin-share)
Day 6: Masai Mara National Reserve (B / L / D)
We depart from Nakuru and enter Masai land where these habitual pastoralists are often seen tending their cattle from the side of the road. We pass through the town of Narok, before arriving at our tented camp. Our camp looks on to the Meguarra hills and the stream that meanders by on the bottom end forms a natural border to the Masai Mara National Reserve. Two nights will be spent here to allow for a full day excursion into the Masai Mara National Reserve tomorrow.
Accommodation: Tented Camp (twin-share)
Day 7: Masai Mara National Reserve (B / L /D)
We spend the day driving through nature as it was intended to be - huge plains, rolling hills and an abundance of game matched nowhere else on earth. Located in the south-west of Kenya the Masai Mara falls within the Great Serengeti Region and effectively forms the northern continuation of the Serengeti National Park of Tanzania. The park is named for the Masai tribes' people, the traditional inhabitants of the area, and the Mara River which bisects the park. The reserve, which sits within the Great Rift Valley, is primarily open grassland which provides good year round grazing. We keep an eye open for the Big 5 - elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion & leopard. If travelling between July and October, we may get to witness the impressive herds of over 1 million wildebeest, zebra and Thomson's gazelle in their Annual Migration. Sitting around the camp fire, watching the sun set is the perfect way to finish a day's game viewing in this 'Garden of Eden.'
Accommodation: Tented Camp (twin-share)
Day 8: Masai Mara to Nairobi (B)
After breakfast, we begin our journey back to Nairobi. On arrival in the late afternoon, we will bid some of our fellow travellers a fond farewell before checking back into the hotel for the evening.
Accommodation: Hotel (twin-share)
Day 9: Arusha (B / L / D)
Leaving Nairobi once more we travel south, crossing the border into Tanzania at Namanga. On our journey south we may catch glimpses of Africa's highest mountain, Mt Kilimanjaro, with its distinctive snow-capped peak standing 5895m above the plain. We will also pass by Mt Meru, Tanzania's second highest mountain at 4566m, which stands on the outskirts of Arusha like a sentinel. The town of Arusha, which forms the hub of the safari industry that services the northern parks of Tanzania, is alive with the excitement of safaris beginning and safaris ending.
Accommodation: Hotel (twin-share)
Day 10: Karatu (B / L / D)
This morning we depart Arusha and travel 30kms west to the village of Meserani. Here we will stop to visit the exceptional Meserani Reptile Park and Masai Cultural Museum. Leaving here we drive west and then head north, passing through the town of Mto Wa Mbu that lies adjacent to Lake Manyara National Park. As we climb up the western edge of the Rift Valley escarpment we pause for views over the alkaline Lake Manyara and surrounding Masai lands before reaching the town of Karatu. Karatu offers magnificent views over the surrounding hills and has many well established wheat farms that add to the picturesque panoramas.
Accommodation: Hotel (twin-share)
Day 11: Serengeti National Park (B / L / D)
This morning we depart early as we travel through the Ngorongoro Conservation area, gaining a tantalising glimpse into the Ngorongoro Crater, as we head into the adjoining Serengeti National Park. We pass the 'Cradle of Mankind', where Mary & Louis Leakey made astonishing discoveries into early human life in the late 1950's, on our way to the Serengeti National Park.
The Serengeti National Park is undoubtedly the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world. With more than two million wildebeest, half a million Thomson's gazelles and one quarter of a million zebra, the Serengeti has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa. Moreover the wildebeest and zebra form the star cast of a very unique spectacular - the annual Serengeti migration. Lying between the shores of Lake Victoria to the west, Lake Eyasi to the south, and the Great Rift Valley to the east, the Serengeti offers the most complex and least disturbed ecosystem on earth.
We game drive cross the vast plains as we head through the southern and central areas in the park. Tonight we experience the spectacle of 'camping' in the midst of the bushveld surrounded by the sounds of the African wilderness.
Accommodation: Tented Camp (twin-share)
Day 12: Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater (B / L / D)
A unique combination of diverse habitats enables the Serengeti to support more than 30 species of large herbivores and nearly 500 species of birds. This morning, we head off for another game drive and explore the landscape in search of the resident game. With some luck, we may see some of Africa's 'Big 5'! Following our morning drive, we retrace our journey back across the plains to reach the lush Crater rim. Here we transfer into locally operated 4WD vehicles for our game drive into the Ngorongoro Crater. Due to the steep gradient of the descent road into the Ngorongoro Crater only small vehicles are allowed to enter the wildlife rich Ngorongoro Crater.
The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera in the world, measuring 610m deep with the crater floor covering just 260km2. Comprising of open savannahs, acacia forests and both soda and fresh water lakes, the Ngorongoro Crater is truly a miniature 'Garden of Eden'. This World Heritage Site boasts some of the best game viewing in Africa - including the elusive Black Rhino. The Crater also contains a population of about 25,000 large animals and the highest density of mammalian predators in Africa!
After an afternoon of game driving in the Ngorongoro Crater we return to Karatu.
Accommodation: Hotel (twin-share)
Day 13: Lake Manyara to Arusha (B / L / D)
Today we travel back down the Great Rift Valley Escarpment to Lake Manyara National Park for one final morning game drive before returning to Arusha. Lake Manyara National Park is a serene and beautiful park, bordered to the west by the dramatic Rift Valley escarpment and to the east by the alkaline Lake Manyara. At certain times of the year the lake attracts thousands of flamingos as well as a diversity of other birds as well. The lions of Manyara have become adept at tree climbing - a fantastic photo opportunity if you manage to locate them - and for excellent hippo sightings. After a morning game drive we will return to Arusha where we spend the evening musing over our thrilling wildlife experiences.
Accommodation: Hotel (twin-share)
Day 14: Nairobi (B)
This morning we embark on the drive back into Kenya, and onto Nairobi, where our amazing East African overland safari comes to an end on arrival at the Hotel Boulevard.
Optional excursions
- Nairobi, Karen Blixen Museum - US$ 15
- Nairobi, Daphne Sheldrick Animal Orphanage - US$ 10
- Nairobi, National Park - Half Day Tour (min 2) - US$ 65
- Nairobi, Giraffe Centre - US$ 20
- Masai Mara, Maasai Cultural Village Visit - US$ 5
(All prices are approximate and are subject to change)
