relax,rejuvenate and enjoy your Trip to Kenya
Wildlife safari and Photography holiday in Kenya
- COUNTRY:
- Kenya
- LOCATION:
- Masai Mara
- DEPARTURES:
- PRICE:
- From £2395 (7 days)
- MORE INFO:
- Price includes: your tour leader Jarrod Kyte and local Kicheche guides, all meals (excluding evening dinner on Day 7 in Nairobi), all drinks (excluding when at the Rusty Nail in Nairobi on Day 7), laundry at Kicheche, all park fees, day use of tent on last day at Kicheche, transfers, internal flights, game drives and walks. Minimum age 12 years
Photo Gallery: Wildlife safari and Photography holiday in Kenya
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Wildlife safari and photography holiday in Kenya
There will be flaming sunsets cooled by icy sundowners and of course intimate camp fires with only the noise of the bush and a million stars as distraction. Game viewing will be done in custom-built vehicles, however there will be the opportunity to enjoy a game walk where the emphasis will switch from mammals to birds, insects and fauna. One of your morning safaris will be accompanied by a Living With Lions researcher working on the Mara Predator Project and those keen photographers on the trip will be encouraged to take lion ID shots to augment the project’s lion database.
Day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Fly from Nairobi to the Masai Mara where you will be transferred to Kicheche Mara Camp. Afternoon game drive and sundowners. |
| Days 2-6: | It would be against the ethos of this trip and Kicheche to set in stone, a day-by-day itinerary. Clinical schedules are counterproductive, as they do not allow for the capricious nature of wildlife, so on this trip the approach will be reactive as we allow the wildlife to dictate the schedule. So for example if we arrive at Kicheche and hear from the guides that a cheetah with cubs has been seen in the Reserve then you know the focus for the following day’s safari will be cheetah. Likewise, if we hear that the Kicheche Pride has been active on the Lemek plains then your safari will stay closer to home as we look for signs of these enigmatic lions. This flexible approach works, thanks to the skill and professionalism of Kicheche’s guides and over the next 5 days you can expect to enjoy the following but in no particular order: Full Day Safari into the Masai Mara Nature Reserve or Mara North Conservancy A full day safari with a picnic lunch, exploring the game rich Masai Mara Nature Reserve you or the further reaches of the Mara North Conservancy such as Leopard Gorge and Acacia Valley. Full morning game drive with bush breakfast on the Mara River The adage of ‘the early bird catches the worm’ has never been more true than when on safari so you can expect early morning starts on this trip. Not only is the early morning light unbeatable for photography but the animals are far more active when it is cooler first thing in the morning (especially lions) so by getting out there early you are increasing your chances of seeing the wildlife at its most active. The early starts will be rewarded by a delicious bush breakfast overlooking one of the many hippo pools found on the Mara River or under a Balanites Tree looking out across the seemingly never ending Mara plains. Early morning safari in the Lemek Hills looking for Wild Dog Any mention of wild dogs in the Mara and the experts will ruefully shake their heads and talk of how dogs used to run wild before canine distemper decimated numbers. Well, against all the odds, sightings of wild dogs in the northern area of the Mara North Conservancy are becoming more frequent with dogs having been seen around Kilileoni, Ngousani and the Aitong Hills. If sightings have been recently made you will be taken for an early morning safari up into the Aitong Hills as the merest sniff of a chance to see wild dogs should not be ignored! Game Walk Getting out on foot allows for a more intimate encounter with Africa’s flora and fauna, where one can see, hear, touch and smell the real wild Africa. Kicheche’s masai guides will talk you through the medicinal qualities of the local fauna, while looking for animal tracks and pointing out the smaller mammals, reptiles, birds and insects often overlooked when in a vehicle. Visit to Masai market in Aitong Aitong market is far removed from Nairobi’s tourist markets selling predictable and cheesy souvenirs. This is a genuine trading post for Masai who will often walk for days to bring their cattle and goats, looking to do business and a spot of socialising with their fellow tribesmen. This is an authentic look at a Masai way of life that hasn’t changed in hundreds of years and while the welcome you are likely to receive will be warm, photography will not always be appropriate. Morning safari and lunch with Living with Lions researcher On one of the morning game drives you will be joined by Sara Blackburn of Living With Lions. Sara runs the Mara Predator Project which monitors lions in key areas of the Mara, identifying key trends and shifts in population and building an online database of individual lions so that effective conservation methods can be applied. This morning’s focus will be to look for lions to allow Sara to explain the methods used to reliably identify lions and if you are a keen photographer you will be encouraged to take useful ID shots to add to the Mara Predator Project lion database. Sara will later join us for lunch back at Kicheche, after which she will demonstrate the database and upload any photographs taken that morning. Game drive up Killeleoni escarpment with unbeatable views over the Mara A morning game drive up Kilileoni escarpment is a compulsory activity when enjoying an extended stay at Kicheche. Meaning “high place” in Maa, Kilileoni is an impressive landmark, forming the natural northern border of the Greater Masai Mara. Standing at approximately 2,000 meters it is home to a number of mammals such as Klipspringers, gazelle and baboons and from the summit one can often see Black Eagles floating effortlessly on the rising thermals. Vehicles can be driven all the way to the summit but for those wanting a bit of exercise you can jump out halfway and make the final ascent by foot. Once you have caught your breath, having absorbed the outstanding views of the dotted plains below, a bush breakfast on top of Kilileoni is a memorable start to the day. |
| Day 7: | In order to fit in a final morning’s game drive, your flight back to Nairobi is booked for the afternoon. Lunch will of course be provided at Kicheche and if the camp is busy you will have the use of a day tent to freshen up before flying back to Nairobi. At Wilson airport you will be met and transferred to the Rusty Nail for supper before being dropped at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. |
How this holiday makes a difference
Community
Our travel partners, accommodation, service providers and ground agents are all carefully chosen to ensure their commitment to the environment. Most are quality, family owned businesses which reflect the unique character of the places, the abiding hospitality of its people and the remarkable spirit of its wilderness.
The camp used on this trip supports 2 local schools, a local clinic and the nearby guiding school and in addition gives employment to approx 35 local masai. The wildlife guides used at this camp are mainly trained at the local Koiyaki Guiding School which educates local young masai towards obtaining a Bronze KPSGA qualification. The shop in camp encourages a local group of ladies to provide bead work for which money is paid into a joint account, ring-fenced for use in funding young local girls to attend school
The trip includes a visit to the nearby Aitong market and a manyatta where the interaction is carefully managed to ensure sensitivity towards cultural sensibilities. If not handled carefully ‘village visits’ become voyeuristic and are uncomfortable for both tourist and villager so every effort is made to foster two way interaction in order to deliver an authentic cultural experience.
Environment
This operator has raised significant funds in support of the world’s leading wildlife and conservation agencies and have increased awareness of conservation through the holidays we run. Furthermore we have voluntarily spearheaded collective action campaigns such as Travel Operators for Tigers in South Asia and continue to work with conservation initiatives on the ground to provide much need funds and to give our clients a privileged insight into this crucial work.
This trip gives financial support to the Living With Lions Mara Predator Project which monitors lions in the Mara North Conservancy, identifying key trends and shifts in population and building an online database of individual lions so that effective conservation methods can be applied. Lion populations throughout Africa are in decline so it is imperative that tourism raises awareness concerning the lion’s plight and raises funds towards conservation projects.
To mitigate the carbon dioxide released into the high atmosphere through your air travel we are giving £10 per client to Rainforest Concern if you book international flights through us. Rainforests have a central role to play in the slowing of climate change and yet we are removing forests from the planet at a faster rate than they can grow back. It is thus axiomatic to try and preserve the forests that we have rather than replanting. Rainforest Concern was established in 1993 to protect threatened natural habitats, the biodiversity they contain and the indigenous people who still depend on them for their survival.
Kicheche Mara Camp, the base for this trip has been awarded Bronze Eco-certification by Eco Tourism Kenya for its commitment to the local community and its re-cycling policies in camp. In addition Kicheche guides adhere to strict codes of conduct when carrying out game drives and have been instrumental in formulating a policy on guiding etiquette in the Mara North Conservancy. In short, the policy is formed around 8 salient tenets:
- A limit of 5 vehicles on a sighting.
- 20 mts distance should be maintained from all sightings.
- General behaviour - vehicle engines should be switched off and wildlife observed in relative silence. Guests should remain in vehicles and not stand on the roof or hang out of the window. All picnics should be taken away from sightings.
- Animal harassment - flushing animals out of bushes etc is strictly forbidden as is any attempt to attract the attention of an animal.
- A speed limit of 40 km/ph should be observed at all times.
- Night drives are not permitted in MNC. Vehicles returning to camp after dark may use spotlights but strictly on nocturnal wildlife only.
- Injured Wildlife - to be reported immediately and followed up on by guides and camp managers.
- Litter - avoid dropping any litter and where possible stop and pick up litter that has already been dropped.
The guiding principle to all of the above is a mantra this operator has long adopted - the wildlife comes first.
