Itinerary
After arrival and going through the airport customs meet up with your guide and after a pre briefing depart for Thika. In the late afternoon take a rest or birding along the river and birds may include a Kenyan endemic Hinde’s Pied Babbler among others. There is also an option of visiting a local coffee factory to experience the process of coffee production. In the evening if lucky a Southern Giant Pouched Rat, a Crested Porcupine or a Genet may visit our lodge
Overnight at Kariminu River Camp
After breakfast bird around the camp with a few target birds that may include one of the Kenya Endemics the Hinde’s Pied Babbler and a few specialties of the area which may include the Grey-Olive Greenbul, Blue-headed Coucal, Northern Pied Babbler, more than half a dozen sunbirds, Black-throated Wattle-eye among many asterids such as Common, Crimson-winged, Yellow-bellied and Black-faced Waxbills.
Later proceed for Mt Kenya Forest Reserve, through the pineapple and coffee plantations arriving for lunch. Later in the afternoon would be spent birding in this highland forest where birds seen may include the Africa’s most powerful eagle the African Crowned, Hartlaub’s Turaco, Sharpe’s Starling, Purple-throated Cuckooshrike, another Kenyan endemic Kikuyu White-eye, Eastern & Northern Double-collared Sunbirds, Rameron Pigeon, Red-fronted Parrot, White-headed Woodhoopoe, African Emerald Cuckoo, Grey Cuckoo shrike and others. Olive Ibises occasionally flies near the lodge in the evening on their way back to their roosting site
Overnight at Castle Forest Lodge
After breakfast leave for Buffalo Springs National Reserve adjacent to and a sister reserve to Samburu National Reserve arriving for late lunch. Birding and gamedrives should take us through the famous national reserves of arid bush country with beautiful riverine forest along the Ewaso Nyiro River.
A wide set of mammals thrive in the reserve including Reticulated Giraffe, endangered Gravy’s Zebra, Somali Mongoose, Kirk’s & Gunther’s Dikdik, Common Waterbuck, Gerenuk and the Beisa Oryx, African Elephant, Lion, Leopard & Cheetah. If lucky a tiny Naked Mole Rat throwing soil from his tunnel is a treat
Overnight at Ashnil Samburu Camp
Morning and afternoon biding and game viewing in the park. Birds seen here may include Somali Ostrich, Bateleur, Palm-nut Vulture, African Hawk-eagle, Pygmy Falcon, Martial Eagle. A hard one to miss is a comic-looking Vulturine Guineafowl. Buff-crested Bustard, Black-faced, Chestnut-bellied & Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouses, Rosy-patched Bushshrike, African Orange-bellied Parrot, African Scops-owl, Pearl-spotted Owlet, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Red-and-yellow Barbet, Bearded Woodpecker, Somali Bee-eater, Rufous-crowned Roller, Pink-breasted Lark, African Bare-eyed Thrush, Hunter’s & Black-bellied Sunbirds, Golden-breasted, Hilderbrant’s & Fischer’s Starlings, Donaldson-Smith’s Sparrow-weaver and a special trip to one corner of the reserve in search of another
Overnight at Ashnil Samburu Camp
After breakfast we will transfer to Lake Nakuru National Park stopping at a large cliff wall that is a roosting spot for the highly sought after Mackinder’s (Cape) Eagle-Owl. Also possible are Little Rock Thrush, Red-winged Starling, Pale Flycatcher and Long-billed Pipit. And a few more stops along the way for Lesser Jacana and Levaillant’s Cisticolas.
Birding in Lake Nakuru National Park is regarded as the “the greatest ornithological spectacle in the world” with both Lesser and Greater Flamingoes sometimes exceeding 100s of thousands of individuals, however in the recent years you hardly see many thousands individual birds but still it’s a place far worth the birding experience. The alkaline habitat, acacia woodland, grassland, rivers and inlets with marshes holds residents as well as migratory species.
Bird may include different water birds, Long-crested, Tawny Eagle, Black-shouldered Kite, Augur Buzzard, White-fronted Bee-eater, Lilac-breasted Roller, Rock Martin, Arrow-Marked Babbler, Little Rock Thrush, Wailing, Rattling Cisticola, Rüppell’s Long-tailed Starling, Rüppell’s Robin Chat, White-shouldered Cliff Chat, African Grey Flycatcher, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Common, Grey-backed Fiscal, Tropical Boubou, Black Cuckoo-shrike Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu among many others.
While big games include the Rothschild’s Giraffe, Cape Buffalo, waterbuck, Common Eland, hippo, both Black and White Rhino, Lion, leopard, Spotted Hyena,
Overnight at Lake Nakuru Lodge
After morning game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park transfer to Lake Naivasha where if lucky we can find Grey-crested Helmet-Shrike among other specials like the Hilderbrant’s Francolin, Spotted Eagle-Owl, Schalow’s Wheatear, White-fronted Bee-eater, Lyne’s Cisticola among waterbirds during a boat ride.
A night game drive here may produce Spring Hare, Bat-eared Fox and rarely an Aardvark
Overnight at Crater Lake Lodge
After the morning breakfast transfer to the world famous Masai Mara National Reserve arriving for lunch. The mammal extravaganza starts with an afternoon game drive
Overnight at Ashnil Mara Camp/EnkaKenya Camp/Matira Bush Camp
Masai Mara National Reserve is a plain of rolling grassland dotted with a mixture of acacia trees and blended by the famous Mara River, swampy, grassy and forested habitats all hosting different kind of birds & birding. Specialties among other common birds include Rosy-breasted Longclaw, Ashy Flycatcher, Mosque, Lesser striped & Red-rumped Swallows, African White-backed, Lappet-faced, White-headed & Hooded Vultures, White-naped Raven, Ross Turaco, Black-backed Puffback, Croaking, Stout, Pectoral-patched, Rattling and Black-backed Cisticolas, Fan-tailed Widowbird, Hildebrandt’s Starling, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Black & White Casqued Hornbill, Lilac-breasted Roller, Brown-throated Wattle-eye, Plain and Long-billed Pipit, Saddle-billed, Woolly-necked Stork, Yellow-fronted Canary among many others.
We also have great chances of spotting prides of lions, cheetah and leopard among other larger mammals of the African Savannah.
Overnight at Ashnil Mara Camp/EnkaKenya Camp/Matira Bush Camp
We also have great chances of spotting prides of lions, cheetahs and leopard among other larger mammals of the African Savannah.
Overnight at Ashnil Mara Camp/EnkaKenya Camp/Matira Bush Camp
After breakfast leave for Amboseli National Park, located on the leeward side of Africa’s highest mountain the Kilimanjaro on the Kenya/Tanzania border. Though a relatively dry, dust and mainly open area, it collects lots of underground water from Mt. Kilimanjaro hence several springs of swampy habitats of papyrus that attracts huge concentration of wildlife especially elephants, buffalos, wildebeests with a variety of waterfowls. There’s also the open acacia woodland and Commiphora bushland around the park.
Birds includes the Common Ostrich, Great White Pelican, Common Squacco, Goliath & Grey Herons, Hadada, Sacred & Glossy Ibises, African Spoonbill, Lesser Flamingo, Red-billed Teal, Secretary Bird, African White-backed & Lappet-faced Vultures, Bateleur, Black-chested Snake Eagle & Brown Snake Eagle, Tawny Eagle, African Hawk-Eagle, African Fish Eagle, Pigmy Falcon, African Harrier Hawk, Gabar & Eastern Pale Chanting Goshawks, Crested Francolin, Buff-crested, Hartlaub’s & Kori Bustards, African Jacana, Collared Pratincole, Long-toed & Kittlitz Plovers, Black-winged Stilt, Curlew & Marsh Sandpipers, Black-faced Sandgrouse, Namaqua, Ring-necked, Laughing & African Mourning Doves, Donaldson-Smith Nightjar, Speckled, Blue-napped & White-headed Mousebirds, Green Wood-hoopoe, Southern Ground, Von der Decken’s, Yellow-billed, African Grey & Red-billed Hornbills, Fawn-collared, Rufous-naped & Singing Bush Larks, Rufous Chatterer, Little Rush Warbler, Yellow-bellied Eremomela, Banded Parisoma, Desert Cisticola, Grey-backed, Taita Fiscals, Fischer’s & Wattled Starlings, Grey-capped Social-Weaver.
Spend Early morning till mid-day for game drive and another game drive in the afternoon.
Overnight at Amboseli Serena Lodge/Kibo Safari Camp
After an early morning breakfast, we take a game drive enroute as we transfer to Nairobi where our tour ends with a dinner at a Nairobi Restaurant.
