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Kenya Under Canvas
$4,495 per person, based on double occupancy. Single supplement: $1,195.
Trip Details
See the tour brochure (pdf)
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Trip Overview
Stunning scenery, welcoming people and phenomenal wildlife have kept the remarkable country of Kenya at the forefront of the world's wildlife destinations. On our June 2010 tour, visit a giraffe center and baby elephant rehabilitation clinic before exploring remote Samburu Reserve, the amazing plains of the Great Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru.
This tour also is also offered November 3-14, 2010.
Trip Itinerary
Thursday, June 3 & Friday, June 4: U.S. / London
Depart the United States on an overnight group flight (or on your own independent flight), arriving in London in the morning. Dayrooms at an airport hotel are available for those on the group flight, with the flight to Nairobi departing in the evening. (Meals aloft)
Saturday, June 5: Nairobi
Arrive in Nairobi in the morning. Transfer to the hotel for breakfast and a briefing with your guide and fellow travelers. After some relaxation time and lunch on your own, visit a nature center run by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife. An elevated observation walkway allows you to get face to face with 18-foot-tall Rothschild’s giraffes. You’ll also go to an elephant orphanage on the edge of Nairobi National Park. The orphanage is a nursery and rehabilitation center for abandoned infant elephants (and the occasional rhino and other species). The elephants are eventually released into the wild at the Tsavo East National Park. Head back to your hotel for a welcome dinner. Nairobi Safari Park Hotel (B,D)
Sunday, June 6 & Monday, June 7: Samburu Reserve
Drive across rich farm land and rugged roads to the Samburu Reserve. Situated just above the equator, Samburu is home to big predators, elephants and wildlife species found nowhere else in Kenya, including Grevy’s zebras, reticulated giraffes, Beisa oryxes and Somali ostriches. From your tented camp along the Uaso Nyiro River, look for some of the 300 bird species found here, including pied wagtails, bee-eaters, lilac-breasted rollers and bateleurs. You will meet members of the Samburu tribe that live on lands near the reserve, and, of course, see an abundance of elephants that come to the river and give the campsite its name. Elephant Bedroom Camp (B,L,D daily)
Tuesday, June 8 & Wednesday, June 9: Great Rift Valley / Lake Nakuru
Depart Samburu and drive to the Great Rift Valley. You’ll stop en route to meet local women who participate in the Nanyuki Spinners and Weavers project and to see their handicrafts. The effort trains widowed and single women from surrounding villages to create rugs and other knitted and woven items, allowing them to earn a living for their families. Following lunch, head into the Great Rift Valley, a geological fault dotted with dormant volcanoes and stretching across one-sixth of the Earth’s circumference, making it visible from space. With bubbling springs and geysers, the landscape is spectacular. You’ll spend your second day exploring Lake Nakuru. The shallow, alkaline lake is known for a huge concentration of flamingos that give the water’s surface a rosy glow. The park boasts leopards, lions, buffalos, hippos, waterbucks, warthogs, baboons and rare white and black rhinos. It’s also the only place in Kenya where the Rothschild’s giraffe is found in the wild. Stay in the thatched-roof cottages of a private conservancy. Mbweha Camp (B,L,D daily)
Thursday, June 10 – Saturday, June 12: Maasai Mara Reserve
After breakfast, drive to your luxury tented camp in the 700-square-mile Maasai Mara Reserve. The “Jewel of Africa” is a classic savannah, with rolling grasslands where the wildlife sightings are plentiful and vistas are spectacular. Look for Africa’s most popular animals – lions, cheetahs, elephants, leopards, black rhinos, hippos and ostriches among them – during twice-daily safaris. You’ll see Maasai villagers tending their cattle, living in relative harmony with their surroundings. Stay overnight at a luxury tented camp along the banks of the Talek River, which is one of the most wildlife-active areas of the reserve. An optional balloon safari and excursion to Lake Victoria are available during your stay here. Mara Tipilikwani Camp (B,L,D daily)
Sunday, June 13: Maasai Mara / Depart Nairobi
Watch the sun rise over the savannah before driving to Nairobi, where you’ll have lunch on your own and the remainder of the day at leisure, with dayrooms available. After enjoying dinner on your own, transfer to the airport for your flight home. Dayrooms at Safari Park Hotel. (B; meals aloft)
Monday, June 14: London / U.S.
Arrive in London and connect with your flights home or on to other adventures. (Meals aloft)
Optional Extension
Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks
Explore two other key Kenyan national parks—Amboseli and Tsavo—during a seven-night extension. At the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Amboseli was the setting for novels by Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark. Tsavo, meanwhile, is Kenya’s largest national park, with volcanic hills, four rivers and more than 60 major mammal species. Extension cost: $1,895 per person, based on double occupancy. Single supplement: $895.
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