Everywhere pulsates with life, from the acacia-dotted savannahs of arid Samburu, arguably Kenya’s finest mammal reserve, to the endless undulating grasslands of the legendary Maasai Mara, perhaps the finest place on earth to see large mammals in abundance, timed to witness the northbound Wildebeest migration. At Nakuru National Park the incredible sight of over a million noisy Lesser Flamingos ringing the soda lake is surely one of the great wildlife spectacles while a boat ride along the shore of Lake Baringo will take us close to African Spoonbills, Goliath Herons, Jacanas, diminutive Malachite Kingfishers and majestic Fish Eagles, common inhabitants of the lakeshore as are hippos and Nile Crocodiles. Throughout our tour we will encounter many of Africa’s colorful birds including gem-like sunbirds, beautiful bee-eaters and impossibly bright starlings. There are also a tremendous variety of raptors ranging from the tiny Pygmy Falcon, a bird no bigger than a starling, to the weird and wonderful Secretary Bird.

This is a wonderful holiday for photography. The combination of unusual scenery, beautiful and often very approachable wildlife, and rural Kenyan 'scenes' means that there is plenty to shoot on this ultimate Wildlife Safari.

ITINERARY:

Day 1 - Overnight flight from US to London

Day 2 - Morning flight from Heathrow, London to Nairobi – evening arrival

Day 3 - Nairobi National Park
Set on the very edge of the capital, Nairobi National Park is an extensive area of grassland and African olive acacia woodland. It has a great variety of game, from Giraffes, Burchell’s Zebras, Grant’s and Thompson’s Gazelles, Impalas and Eland to Lion and Black Rhinos. Bird life is also excellent with Ostriches, Secretary Birds, Grey-crowned Cranes and Yellow-necked Spurfowl, Coqui and Shelly’s Francolins found in these grasslands, while Crowned Plovers, Superb Starling, Variable Sunbird, Little Bee-eater, Rufous Sparrow, Long-tailed Fiscal Shrike, Helmeted Guineafowl and Red-eyed Doves, offer a super introduction to the common birds of East Africa.

Day 4 - Lake Naivasha & Nakuru National Park
This morning after breakfast, we head towards the Rift Valley and Lake Nakuru via a couple of local birding hotspots including Limuru ponds. We will also stop at Lake Naivasha for some morning birding around the beautiful gardens of Lake Naivasha Country Club as well as taking a boat ride on the lake.

Freshwater Lake Naivasha holds a vast array of bird species including African Fish Eagle, Pied Kingfisher, African Spoonbill, Spur-winged and Blacksmith Plovers, Grey-headed Gull, Hottentot Teal, Red-billed Teal, Wire-tailed Swallow while we hope to find Red-faced Crombec, Klaas Cuckoo, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, Grey-capped Warbler and Amethyst Sunbird amongst the tall open branched Acacia’s.

Following lunch at the Country Club we depart for Lake Nakuru National Park arriving in time for our evening enroute game drive.

Day 5 - Kakamega Forest
After breakfast, we depart for Kakamega Forest with picnic lunch boxes. We will have a couple of birding stopovers along the way, as well as enjoy the magnificent views of the Kericho Tea Estates; Kenyan’s famous tea growing area. Time allowing, we will have a brief stopover at Kisumu-Lake Victoria papyrus swamps, looking for Red-chested Sunbird, Hammerkops, Yellow-billed Stork, Northern Brown-throated and Western Black-headed Weaver, Black-headed Gonelek, and Swamp Flycatcher.

Day 6 - Kakamega Forest
At Kakamega Forest and the surroundings, we will be looking for the 36 birds’ species that are localized and several endemic to this area. Just to mention a few, we will hope to see the Blue-headed Bee-eater, Western Black-headed Oriole, Jameson’s Wattle-eye, Turner’s Eremomela, Red-chested Owlet, Grey Parrot, Great Blue and Black-bellied Turaco, Red-headed Malimbe, Vieillot’s Black and Dark-backed Weavers among others. Greenbuls are an ID challenge, and include Cameroon Sombre, Little Grey, Ansorge’s, Shelley’s, Toro Olive, Honeyguide and Joyful Greenbuls, and Red-tailed Bristlebill. Kakamega Forest also offers a chance to see a great variety of butterflies.

Monkeys too are commonly seen, and include Blue and Red-tailed, as well as Black-and-White Colobus monkeys.

Day 7 - Lake Baringo
After breakfast we will depart for Lake Baringo with picnic lunch boxes again to allow us enough time to explore the spectacular Kerio Valley in search of species like Gambaga Flycatcher among other birds arriving at the Lake Baringo Country Club by mid afternoon. The rest of the day will be spent bird watching around the club’s lovely grounds and the lake’s shoreline.
Lake Baringo is in a dry, rocky area with acacia bushes and impressive towering Basalt cliffs. This is one of the Kenya's top birding hotspot. Here, we normally look for the following species; Northern Red Bishops, Jackson's & Hemprich's Hornbill, Jackson's Golden-backed, Black-headed, Little, Lesser Masked, White-billed and Northern Masked Weavers. Other interesting species includes; Dark Chanting Goshawk, Shikra, African Fish Eagle, Lanner Falcon, African Jacana, Black-headed Plovers, Malachite, African Pygmy and Pied Kingfishers, Rufous-crowned Roller, Brown-tailed Rock Chat, Sulphur-breasted and Grey-headed Bush Shrikes, Bristle-crowned Starling, Beautiful Sunbird, Heuglin's Courser, White-faced Scops, Spotted & Verreaux's Eagle-owl, Slender-tailed Nightjar and Green-winged Pytilias among others.

In the lake, we will have a chance to do an optional boat ride among schools of Hippos and Crocodiles, as well as enjoy watching the local fishermen fishing with their traditional ambach canoes, besides lots of waterbirds including Goliath Heron and White-faced Whistling Ducks.

Day 8 - Lake Baringo/ Lake Bogoria
This morning we’ll take a very short drive to enjoy the breath taking views of the nearby basalt cliffs teeming with birds on an early morning bird walk through the acacia woodland with the possibility of Hemprich’s Hornbill, Brown-tailed Rock-chat, Bristle-crowned Starling, Heuglin’s Courser, Spotted Thick-knee, White-faced Scops Owl and Spotted Eagle Owl. After lunch there will be an option of driving to the nearby Lake Bogoria National Reserve for an evening game drive, as well as a visit to the Hot springs and Geysers. It is also here that we will chance to see the rare Greater Kudu Antelope among other plains game.

Day 9 - Lake Nakuru National Park
After breakfast and a brief birding at Baringo we drive to Lake Nakuru National Park arriving with an enroute game drive late morning. Early afternoon will be spent at leisure or exploring the grounds of our lodge before embarking on our late afternoon game drive.

Lake Nakuru is the most famous of the Rift Valley’s lakes. With very attractive Yellow-barked Acacias (fever trees) and magnificent escarpments, the park has also been recognized as an International Biosphere. Lake Nakuru is well known for holding spectacular concentrations of Lesser Flamingoes and small numbers of Greater Flamingoes. Birdlife is abundant and we will hope to see; Little Grebes, Great White & Pink-backed Pelicans, Great & Long-tailed Cormorants, Little and Great Egrets, Sacred Ibis, African Spoonbill, Egyptian Goose, Cape Teal, Coqui and Hildebrandt’s Francolins, Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Kittlitz’s and Blacksmith Plovers among a great variety of other species.

Among the wealth of the African mammals, we will enjoy seeing the Black and White Rhinos, Bohor Reedbuck, Common & Defassa Waterbucks, Impalas, African Cape Buffalo, Rothschild’s Giraffes, Silver-backed Jackals, Spotted Hyena, and if lucky, the tree-climbing Lions of Lake Nakuru. Nakuru is also one of the best places in Kenya to chance for the Leopards!

Day 10 - Naro Moru
After breakfast, we will drive to the Kinagop grasslands in search of the endemic Sharpe’s Longclaw followed by a visit to an abandoned quarry in search of Mackinder’s Eagle Owl amongst a host of other birds. We will hope to arrive at Naro Moru River Lodge by mid afternoon and spend the rest of the day doing extensive walks around the lodge's beautiful grounds, which includes a small forest and seasonal river.

Amongst the species we’ll look for - African Paradise Flycatcher, African Crowned Hornill, Chin-spotted Batis, Black-backed Puffback, African Black Duck, White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher, Streaky Seedeater, Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu, Purple Grenedair, Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater, Bronzed Sunbird, Northern Double-collared Sunbird, Mountain Wagtail, Sulphur-breasted Bush-Shrike, Common Fiscal, Montane Oriole, Montane White-eye and Purple-throated Cuckoo-Shrike.

The grounds are good for birding here, we can bird the grounds and the route up to Mt. Kenya. The key species in the area include: Olive and Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeons, Red-fronted Parrot, Hartlaub’s Turaco, Scarce Swift, African Black Duck, Crowned and Silvery-cheeked Hornbills, Moustached Green and Yellow-rumped Tinkerbirds, Cape Wagtail, Black Saw-wing, Yellow-whiskered, Slender-billed and Mountain Greenbuls, White-starred Robin, Cape Robin Chat, Cinnamon Bracken Warbler, Hunter’s Cisticola, Chestnut-throated, Grey and Black-throated Apalises, White-browed Crombec, African Dusky Flycatcher, Rufous Chatterer, Chin-spot Batis, Montane White-eye, White-bellied Tit, Tropical Boubou, Grey Cuckoo-shrike, Montane Oriole, Waller’s Starling, Red-billed Oxpecker, Eastern Double-collared Sunbird, Brown-capped Weaver, Yellow-bellied Waxbill, Thick-billed Seed-eater, Yellow-crowned Canary and Oriole-Finch. Raptors include Harrier Hawk, Crowned Eagle, Great Sparrowhawk and the scarce Grey Kestrel and Rufous-sided Sparrowhawk and we’ll likely come across African Paradise Flycatcher, Black-backed Puffback, , White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher, Streaky Seedeater, Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu, Purple Grenedair, Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater, Bronzed Sunbird, Northern Double-collared Sunbird, Mountain Wagtail, Sulphur-breasted Bush-Shrike and Purple-throated Cuckoo-Shrike. Montane Nightjar can be seen and heard in the evening

Day 11 - Mt. Kenya Forest
This morning we will drive up Mt. Kenya to the Met station for high elevation species. Later depart for Serena Mountain Lodge arriving in time for lunch. The rest of the day will be spent birding and game watching from the balcony of your rooms or from the lodges various observation points as well as the guarded forest trails. Overnight: Serena Mountain Lodge.

Set deep in the forest of Mt.Kenya, Mountain Lodge is a tree Lodge built near a waterhole where wild animals can be seen as they come to quench their thirst. The waterhole is floodlit at night and the lodge staff is ready to signal and alert guests when unusual guests come in to the waterhole. We normally walk around the fenced-off grounds of the lodge, where we look for Moustached Green Tinkerbird, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird Waller’s Starling, and Ruppell’s Robin Chat, White-starred Robin, Doherty’s Bush-shrike, Hunter’s Cisticola, Red-fronted Barbet, Olive Pigeon, Hartlaub’s Turaco, Silver-cheeked Hornbill and Black-headed Apalis among other bird species. Amongst the wealth of mammals, Forest Elephant, Black Rhino, Giant Forest Hog, Marsh Mongoose, Bushbucks are regular visitors to the waterhole while Skye’s Monkeys and the Black-and-white Colobus are abundant in the forest.

Day 12, 13 & 14 - Samburu National Reserve
Following some pre-breakfast rooftop birding, we will depart for the semi-arid Samburu/Buffalo Game Reserves driving through the north road. We will hope to arrive at Samburu Serena Lodge in time for lunch. We embark on our first game drive around the reserve later in the afternoon and have two full days in the reserve with a series of game drives.

Samburu / Buffalo Springs National Reserves are predominately areas of acacia bush land, interspersed with open bush grassland with river line thickets and doum palms. These reserves offer a magnificent collection of flora and fauna and host a great variety of plains game including all the ‘Big Five’s’ - elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino. In particular we expect to see African Elephants, both Grevy’s and Burchell’s Zebras, the graceful Reticulated Giraffes, Warthogs, all the Big Cats, Hyenas and Jackals, Olive Baboons and Vervet Monkeys.

This is also one of the best places to see a great host of small and large antelopes; Beisa Oryx, Gerenuk, Common Eland, Impala and Kirk’s Dik dik, just to name a few. Some of the other small unnoticed mammals that we shall be looking for include; Unstripped Ground and Olive Bush Squirrels, Cape Hares, Rock Hyraxes, Hedgehogs and Acacia Rats, which are all very important in the ecosystem.

Among the 300 birds species recorded here we will enjoy to see the beautiful Golden-breasted Starling, Green Wood-hoopoe, Abyssinian Scimitarbill, marvelous Vulturine Guineafowl, Lilac-breasted Roller, Pink-breasted Lark, Emerald spotted Wood-dove, Red-billed Hornbill, Rufous Chatterer, Black-faced Sandgrouse, a variety of weavers and raptors like Bateleur, eastern Pale Chanting Goshawk, Tawny Eagle and Martial Eagles- the largest African Eagle!

Day 15, 16, 17 & 18 - Maasai Mara National Reserve
Following breakfast we will be transferred to Samburu Airstrip to catch our flight to the Maasai Mara. For the next three and a half days we will be in the Maasai Mara enjoying full day programs of tracking the migration at the Mara Serena area and the nearby crossing points.

The Maasai Mara is probably one of the best places in Africa to see the 'Big and Small Cats' with nearly all the members well represented here, sometimes in unusually big prides. Along the rivers schools of Hippopotamus can be found basking in the shallow pools and the river banks. Other mammals of interest include Silver-backed Jackal, the delightful Bat-eared Fox, Banded Mongoose and the Spotted Hyena. At this time the core of attraction will be the spectacular feature of the annual migration of a million or more wildebeest and attendant zebras, plains game and their respective predators following them.

Birdlife is abundant, with many birds of prey in particular; about 57 species have been recorded here including 6 species of Vulture. Notable species here are Kori and White-bellied Bustards, the amazing Secretary Bird, Usambiro and Spot-flanked Barbets, Grey Kestrel, White-headed, Egyptian, Griffon, Hooded, African White-backed and Lappet-faced Vultures, Black-chested Snake Eagle, Nubian & Cardinal Woodpeckers, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Sooty Chats, African Wattled Plover, Hildebrandt's Starling, among a great variety of other species.

Day 19 - Return to Nairobi; Evening flight to London
Sadly today we have to end our safari, however we will have the whole morning to search for last minute missed species before we are transferred to the airstrip for our afternoon flight to Nairobi and our late evening overnight flight.

Day 20 - Morning flight from London to US

Leaders: Ben Mugambi and Adrian Binns

Deposit: $500.00 sent in along with your registration form. Final payment and balance is due May 20, 2008

Cost: $6450.00 based upon double occupancy from Nairobi. Single Supplement $990.00 If you do not request a single room and we are unable to find you a roommate, you will be charged the single supplement.

What is included in the Cost: All ground transportation, game drives, boat rides and park entrance fees; internal flight from Samburu to the Maasai Mara and return from the Maasai Mara to Nairobi; all meals from breakfast on Day 3 through dinner on Day 19; all accommodations; services of Professional Guides; Flying Doctors Medical Travel Insurance throughout the safari and bottled water while on game drives.

What is not included in the Cost: Airfare to Nairobi; Airport taxes (if applicable); Visa; Travel Insurance; Items of a personal nature; Beverages; Tips to waiters, porters, guides and drivers.

Group Size: A maximum of 10 people (2 vehicles) and a minimum of 4.