Prepared for Dr. and Mrs. Adeyemi
Curated by Compass & Acacia
2 travellers
Light aircraft between camps
Full board, all game drives included
Private 4x4 with dedicated guide
Kenyan Shilling (KES)
- Neutral colours, nothing bright
- Warm layer for dawn drives
- Binoculars
- Dust-proof camera bag
Photo: Dolon Prova / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)Nairobi
You land in the afternoon and go no further. Hemingways is twenty minutes from the airport, the garden is quiet, and tomorrow starts early enough that tonight should not.
- 3:20 PMArrive Jomo Kenyatta International
- 4:30 PMTransferTransfer to Hemingways Nairobi
- 7:30 PMDinner at the hotel
- Rest and reset
- Brasserie at Hemingways
Photo: BarcarolIa / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)Amboseli
- Nairobi
- Amboseli
A light aircraft south to Amboseli, where the elephants are the largest-tusked in Kenya and Kilimanjaro fills the entire southern sky on any morning the cloud lifts. Your first game drive is the same afternoon.
- 9:30 AMFlightWilson Airport departure
- 10:20 AMLand at Amboseli airstripMet by your guide, Joseph
- 4:00 PMTransferFirst game driveElephant herds on the marsh
- Afternoon game drive
- Sundowners on the observation hill
- Tortilis Camp · Open-sided dining tent, Kilimanjaro view
Out before dawn, because the mountain is only reliably clear in the first hour of light. Big tuskers on the swamp, then back to camp through the heat of the day and out again at four.
- 5:45 AMCoffee at the tent
- 6:15 AMTransferDawn game driveKilimanjaro clearest before 8 AM
- 12:30 PMReturn to camp, rest
- 4:00 PMTransferAfternoon drive
- Dawn and dusk game drives
- Maasai homestead visit
- Bush breakfast · Set up on the plain
Photo: NASA / Wikimedia (Public domain)Lake Nakuru
- Amboseli
- FlyNakuru
North across the Rift Valley to Nakuru — a soda lake ringed with flamingo, and the most reliable rhino sanctuary in the country. Both black and white rhino are here, and the acacia forest on the eastern shore usually holds leopard.
- 10:00 AMFlightFly Amboseli to Nakuru
- 12:30 PMCheck inCheck in at The Cliff
- 3:30 PMTransferGame drive, lake circuit
- Rhino tracking
- Flamingo flats
- Baboon Cliff viewpoint
- The Cliff · Every tent faces the lake
Photo: Thomas Fuhrmann / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)Maasai Mara
- Lake Nakuru
- FlyMara North airstrip
- Maasai Mara
The Mara in August is the reason for the whole trip. You are in a private conservancy on the northern boundary, which means off-road driving and night drives that are not permitted inside the reserve itself.
- 10:30 AMFlightFly to Mara North airstrip
- 12:00 PMArrive camp, lunch
- 4:00 PMTransferFirst Mara game drive
- Afternoon game drive
- Sundowners on the escarpment
- Mara Plains Camp
A full day positioned on the river. Crossings cannot be scheduled — the herds mass on the bank for hours and then go all at once, or not at all — so you take a packed breakfast and lunch and simply stay out.
- 5:30 AMDepart camp in the dark
- 7:00 AMFerryTake position at a crossing point
- 1:00 PMPicnic lunch in the vehicle
- 6:30 PMReturn to camp
- Full-day river crossing vigil
- Predator tracking on the return
- Bush picnic · Carried with you — you will not want to leave
Airborne before sunrise, drifting a few hundred feet over the herds with the burner off. You land somewhere in the grass and they set up a champagne breakfast where the basket stops.
- 5:00 AMCollected for the launch site
- 6:15 AMLift off at first light
- 8:00 AMChampagne breakfast at the landing point
- 4:00 PMTransferFinal afternoon drive
- Hot air balloon safari
- Afternoon game drive
- Bush breakfast · Wherever you land
One more dawn drive, then the short flight back to Nairobi and a day room to shower and repack before the overnight flight. Your guide will have one last place he wants to show you.
- 6:00 AMTransferFinal game drive
- 11:00 AMFlightFly Mara to Wilson
- 1:00 PMDay room at Hemingways
- 10:55 PMDepart Nairobi
- Dawn game drive
- Day room and repack
- Late lunch at Hemingways
Anything at all, ask Compass & Acacia.