6 Day Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru And Amboseli Safari

Our driver guide collects you in Nairobi and we head northwest, climbing the escarpment out of the city with the classic viewpoint over the Rift Valley on the way down the other side. It is roughly 160 kilometres and three hours to the gate. Nakuru covers about 188 square kilometres around a shallow alkaline lake and forms part of the UNESCO listed Kenya Lake System of the Great Rift Valley. We take you in for an afternoon game drive in the southern sector, the best rhino country in the park. Southern white rhino graze in the open in family groups, largely indifferent to vehicles, while eastern black rhino browse in thicker cover and are harder to find. Rothschild’s giraffe work the acacia belt on the eastern shore, recognisable by pale unmarked lower legs that look like white stockings. They were moved here from western Kenya when their home range was being converted to farmland, and the Nakuru population has done well since. Nakuru has no elephant, so this is a four of the Big Five park; the Mara fills that gap later in the week.

An early game drive before we leave, taking in Baboon Cliff on the western escarpment for the view over the whole lake and out across the valley floor, and working the acacia woodland where lion sometimes rest up in the trees. One honest note while we are here: Nakuru was once famous for a million flamingos, and rising water across the Rift lakes has diluted the alkalinity, thinned the algae they feed on and pushed most of them to other lakes. Some are usually present and numbers vary, so treat them as a bonus rather than the reason for coming. Then southwest through Njoro and Narok, roughly four to five hours to the Mara, arriving for a first game drive on the way to your camp. The word Mara means spotted in Maa. It refers to the scattered acacia, scrub and cloud shadow dotting the plains, and once you know that you cannot unsee it. Dinner at camp with our guide planning tomorrow around the most recent sightings.

Out at first light with a picnic lunch, because the Mara rewards a full day rather than two short drives. The reserve covers about 1,510 square kilometres of rolling grassland, and its real strength is the resident predator population, present every month regardless of the migration. Something in the order of 850 lions live across the greater Mara, and the open country makes them far easier to find than in wooded parks. Cheetah do well on these plains and are seen more reliably here than almost anywhere in East Africa, while leopard work the riverine forest along the Mara and Talek rivers. From July to October the herds are here, around 1.5 million wildebeest with several hundred thousand zebra, and the river crossings are what everybody comes for. Nobody can predict a crossing. Herds pile up on the banks for hours and then simply walk away, and a guide can only position you and wait. Over 470 bird species have been recorded across the ecosystem, with six vulture species and a strong raptor list worth stopping for.

A dawn game drive first, which is when the cats are still moving and the light across the grass is at its best, then back to camp for breakfast before the transfer to the airstrip. The scheduled flight to Wilson Airport in Nairobi takes about forty five minutes, with a connection on to Amboseli, and the whole transfer is done by early afternoon. Driving the same route would take most of a day. Amboseli covers 392 square kilometres in Kajiado County on the Tanzanian border, and we take you out for an afternoon game drive as soon as you land. Elephant move between the swamps and the surrounding plains on established routes, often crossing directly in front of the vehicle, and this is the best light of the day for the mountain. Amboseli sits at around 1,150 metres, so it is warmer and dustier than anywhere else on this trip; keep camera gear covered and a scarf to hand.

Out before sunrise, because Kilimanjaro is usually hidden by cloud through the middle of the day and the reliable windows are the first hour after dawn and the last before dark. The mountain rises to 5,895 metres about seventy kilometres south in Tanzania and dominates the skyline completely. Amboseli holds around 1,800 elephants, followed continuously since the early 1970s by the longest running study of wild elephants anywhere, which is why some of the last great tuskers in Africa live here. We work the permanent swamps at Enkongo Narok and Longinye, fed by snowmelt that percolates underground from Kilimanjaro for decades before surfacing, then climb Observation Hill, one of the few places you can leave the vehicle, for the full circle view. It looks out over the swamps, the dry lakebed and, weather permitting, the mountain itself. Five distinct habitats sit inside a park of under 400 square kilometres, which is why sightings come quickly here.

One last drive at first light, which gives you a second chance at the mountain if yesterday was clouded in, and a second chance at the herds crossing the dust in low sun. That combination of elephants in the foreground and Kilimanjaro behind is the single most reproduced image in East African safari photography, and this is the only place it can be taken. Afterwards, back for breakfast and then the road north to Nairobi, roughly 230 kilometres and four to five hours, tarmac to Emali and a rougher stretch before it. We drop you at your hotel or at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. If your flight is late we can stop at a Maasai market or the Nairobi National Museum on the way in. Either fills an afternoon usefully rather than sitting in a departure lounge, and we will hold the vehicle until your flight time rather than dropping you early.