Five Days Amboseli, Nakuru and Mara Safari

Your adventure begins when you are met by your FlashMc Tours guide at 7 am in Nairobi.  As you leave the city, the scenery confirms that your African adventure is underway.  The sweeping savannah is interrupted by the occasional village and you’re bound to see Maasai herdsmen tending their cattle, dressed in the traditional red shuka

After covering about 250 km (155 mi) over 4-5 hours, you arrive at your Amboseli National Park accommodation in time for a glorious lunch.

You’ll then have time to settle in before setting off on your first wildlife viewing experience, known locally as a game drive.  The park lies at the foot of Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, a scenic backdrop to the abundant wildlife.  Species you’re likely to encounter include four of the Big 5 (lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo), cheetahs, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest and various antelope.  Covering over 392 sq. km (151 sq. mi), the park is also home to a myriad species of birds scattered through the savannahs, woodlands and thickets.

As the sun dips towards the horizon, you’ll head back to your accommodation.  After freshening up, a delicious dinner awaits, served around a roaring campfire.  Then retire for the evening in anticipation of the next day’s excitement.

• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Overnight stay in Amboseli National Park
• Lunch and dinner, but not breakfast
• Drinking water, other drinks are extra

Following an early wakeup call, your morning game drive departs with the rising sun to seek out wildlife still active in the cool temperatures.  Amboseli National Park is well-known for its large elephant population of around 2000 individuals, of which you’re bound to see plenty.  The park is home to a unique ecosystem whose various habitats equate to a huge variety of birds and wildlife.  Your guide will share their knowledge of these species along the way before heading back for breakfast.

Reinvigorated after your meal, you set off for the next destination, Lake Nakuru National Park.  The scenic drive from Amboseli measures approximately 373 km (231 mi), taking 6-7 hours to complete, with lunch included en route.

On arrival at your Lake Nakuru accommodation, there will be time to freshen up before departing on an afternoon game drive.  For many, the highlight of this national park is the prolific birdlife, in particular the thousands of flamingos and other waterfowl that visit the lake to feed and breed.  Whichever route your guide chooses, you can be assured that the scenery will be breath-taking.  As the day draws to a close, you’ll arrive back at your accommodation in time for dinner and bed.

• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Overnight stay in Lake Nakuru National Park
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Drinking water, other drinks are extra

Setting off once more at dawn, the air is alive with the calls of various waterbirds.  You’ll spend a few hours on a morning game drive.  While routes vary, your guide may take you to the surreal euphorbia forest or to savor the view from Baboon Hill.  Lake Nakuru National Park presents a wonderful opportunity to view the most elusive of the big cats, the leopard.  Whether draped over a branch high in a tree, or seeming to melt into its surroundings as it stalks, few people are unchanged by an encounter with this exquisite predator.

Today, it is all about the wildlife, so after breakfast you’re back in your comfortable safari vehicle for a game drive en route to your final destination.  Covering around 262 km (162 mi), the journey is interrupted as you stop for a tasty lunch at a scenic spot.

You’ll feel the excitement in the air as you approach one of Africa’s most famous wildlife destinations – the Masai Mara National Reserve.  At 1510 sq. km (583 sq. mi), the Mara, as it is commonly known, is one of Kenya’s largest reserves.  Your wildlife viewing adventure continues before arriving at your accommodations at dusk for dinner and a well-earned rest.

• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Overnight stay in Masai Mara National Reserve
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Drinking water, other drinks are extra

For early-risers and romantic adventurers, there is no better way to start the day than rising over the plains of the Masai Mara in a hot-air balloon on an optional balloon safari, costing $450 per person.

Whether you choose this option or not, the day includes a full day of game viewing.  Home to the northern extremes of the legendary Great Wildebeest Migration, the Mara seldom fails to impress visitors.  Its wide, open plains stretch to the horizon; a golden landscape dotted with wildlife and flat-topped acacia trees.  

Here, you have every chance of seeing the Big 5 in a day.  The reserve’s lion population is in near-constant conflict with huge clans of spotted hyenas.  Belligerent black rhino gaze myopically in your direction, while ranks of benign looking buffalo huddle against threats.  Great elephant bulls make matchsticks of ancient trees, while lithe leopards are ever alert to the chance of an easy meal.  From July to October, a flood of 1.5 million wildebeest sweep over the plains, in the largest terrestrial migration on earth.  Perhaps nowhere is the drama, beauty and perfect balance of nature better displayed across all of Kenya.

After a long but exhilarating day, dinner and a comfortable bed await.

• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Overnight stay in Masai Mara National Reserve
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Drinking water, other drinks are extra

All too soon, your African adventure is drawing to a close – but your fascinating experience with Africa is not over yet.  For those who would like to enjoy a firsthand experience of the traditional life of the ancient Maasai people, an optional visit to a local Maasai manyatta is offered at an extra cost of $20 per person.  The Maasai are an intrinsic part of this land.  Their distinctive red shuka robes are symbolic of their ancient culture and said to ward off dangerous animals.

After a hearty breakfast, you’ll set off in your safari vehicle once again, perhaps spotting a long-anticipated cheetah guarding its kill from ranks of hungry jackals.  Beneath an impossibly blue sky where vultures circle in the updrafts, you’ll make your way out of the reserve and begin the roughly 6 hour (225 km/140 mi) journey back to Nairobi.  At journey’s end, we at FlashMc Tours bid you a fond farewell and encourage you to ponder these words by author Francesca Marciano, “When you leave Africa, as the plane lifts, you feel that more than leaving a continent you’re leaving a state of mind. Whatever awaits you at the other end of your journey will be of a different order of existence.”

• No accommodation, this is the final day
• Breakfast and lunch, no dinner
• Drinking water. other drinks are extra