Kenya Private 4×4 Overland Value Safari

The tour opens with your arrival at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport where you are met and transferred to the city’s Southern Sun Mayfair Hotel. Set in landscaped gardens, the hotel is the ideal place to unwind after what may have been a long journey. There is complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi so you can catch up with home and the hotel has a swimming pool and health centre if you need to stretch or workout. An in-house restaurant makes tonight’s dinner decision easy and, if you have time, there is also convenient access to local highlights such as the Karen Blixen Museum and Giraffe Centre.

The drive north from Nairobi takes you to the Samburu National Reserve and Elephant Bedroom Camp for two nights. It is a well-named camp: set in a shady grove of palms, the camp looks out over a large waterhole and elephants often walk on their way to drink. Wild and starkly beautiful, Samburu is home to arid-area specialists such as Grevy’s zebra, the long-necked gerenuk antelope and reticulated giraffe, animals unique to these northern reserves. It is also home to all the big cats as well as the very rare wild dog and over 400 distinct kinds of bird. Morning and afternoon game drives open up Samburu’s secrets while back at camp your tented suite has its own private plunge pool – a welcome sight during a Samburu summer from October to March.

Dramatic scenery accompanies you as you make your way through a Rift Valley landscape and on to Mbweha Safari Camp. Lying south of Lake Nakuru in a private nature conservancy, Mbweha offers accommodation in thatched stone cottages and is the perfect base from which to re-immerse yourself in nature. The camp’s name means ‘jackal’ and all three East African species are found here, animals you will be on the lookout for as you enjoy an afternoon guided nature walk in the concession. The following day is spent in Lake Nakuru National Park, most famous for its extravagant birdlife (especially flamingos) but also home to big game such as lion, rhino and hippo. You have a picnic lunch in the park, returning to Mbweha for drinks around the fire and a 3-course dinner.

An early breakfast and a morning’s drive take you to Tipilkwani Mara Camp, lying on the Talek River just outside the Masai Mara National Reserve. It is a destination best known for the Wildebeest Migration but such is the nature of the Mara that it supports a dense diversity of wildlife throughout the year. Big cats – lions, leopards and cheetahs – are especially well represented and the Mara is home to elephants, buffalo, rhino and huge numbers of resident antelope while the rivers teem with hippos and crocodiles. You arrive in time for lunch and an afternoon drive in the reserve and can look forward to spending the following morning and afternoon there too, marvelling at the abundance of wildlife – a reminder perhaps of the past days of the African savannahs.

Leaving the Masai Mara after breakfast, you drive back to Nairobi to arrive around lunchtime; you will be taken to Jomo Kenyatta where you check in for your onward travel arrangements and the end of this tour.