great african expedition - 57 days

Expedition Information
Starts in: Nairobi, Kenya (or Cape Town)
Ends in: Cape Town, South Africa (or Nairobi)
Length: 57 Days
Prices and Departures: Click Here
Current Local Payment: Yes USD $1205
Meals: As indicated
Expedition Crew: 3 (Leader, Driver, Cook)
Rating: Camping & Truck expedition

This is the southbound itinerary, for details of the northbound itinerary please refer to the Great African Expedition - Northbound Go Guide.

Days 1 - 9: Masai, Gorillas & Lake Bunyoni Saturday. Welcome to Nairobi! We’ll be there to collect you at Nairobi Airport. Your first night will be spent at our pre-expedition hotel in the centre of town. West from Nairobi on day 2, we reach possibly Kenya’s most famous natural attraction - the Masai Mara National Reserve. The grassy plains of this famous reserve teem with wildlife. The highlight of the Mara is no doubt the annual wildebeest migration, when millions of these beasts stray north from the Serengeti in neighbouring Tanzania in search of green pasture. It’s a smorgasbord for predators - the greatest concentration of four-legged meals. Lion and cheetah have rich pickings here at the Mara. Elephant, giraffe, zebra and a multitude of hooved herbivores also inhabit the reserve. We’ll enjoy a morning and evening game drive on the grassy plains.

Free Masai Mara Safari! Receive a 3 day Masai Mara safari FREE when you book this trip. PLEASE NOTE: Local payment is not included in the FREE offer

Travelling north-west via Nakuru, we cross the Equator just after Kisumu and continue across the border into Uganda. Via Kampala we drive to Lake Bunyoni, the deepest Crater Lake in Africa and home to a large and varied number of beautiful birds, which is the base from which the optional Gorilla trek takes place. Whilst in Lake Bunyoni there will be plenty of time to hike, partake in water activities or just chill-out in this region of amazing beauty. Dependant on where trekking permits are available, we trek in the Magahinga or Bwindi National Parks in Uganda, the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the Ruhengeri National Park in Rwanda.

Winding our way through arguably some of the most picturesque scenery in Africa, we head to the town of Kisoro where we spend the night (should we be trekking in Rwanda our overnight will be in Ruhengeri). The following morning, after packing our picnic lunch, we are transferred to a ranger’s station where the trek commences.  Your rangers will lead you through the cultivated lands and then into the dense rain forest and on to a gorilla family.  Trekking can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 8 hours and it can be quite strenuous, so a reasonable level of fitness is required.  To ensure the gorillas do not get too used to the presence of humans and because they share many of our genes (and therefore able to catch our diseases), the maximum time permitted to spend with them is 1 hour.  You will have plenty of time to watch their activity and to take photographs.  The rangers will be able to provide you with a background to the gorilla family you are visiting.  Once our hour is up, we trek back out of the rain forest and transfer back to the Lake Bunyoni campsite for some R&R before heading back to Kampala.

Days 10 - 14: Rift Valley Lakes
Touching base at the capital - Kampala, which sits on the shores of Lake Victoria, we then continue to Jinja where we can opt to undertake some of the best white-water rafting in Africa, at the River Nile’s source, visit Ngamba chimp sanctuary on Lake Victoria or relax and meet the locals. Crossing back into Kenya, we travel along the Great Rift Valley. Created by the rifting and separation of the African and Arabian tectonic plates around 35 million years ago, the Great Rift Valley runs around 8,000 km from the Jordan Valley all the way to Mozambique! It is marked by a series of crater lakes including Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha, and volcanoes, such as Mount Kilimanjaro. Crowned a national park in the 1960s, Lake Nakuru is world famous as the feeding grounds of vast numbers of flamingo which feed at the shoreline of the shallow soda lake.In addition, more than 400 species of birds can be seen in the park. Hippo, various hooved animals, black rhino, giraffe, lion and leopard are also present at Nakuru. We enjoy morning and afternoon game drives here. The freshwater Lake Naivasha is a sanctuary to bird life. From here, you can opt to visit Elsamere (home of Joy Adamson of ‘Born Free’ fame), Crescent Island Game Sanctuary or Hells Gate NP. Descending the Rift Valley, we continue to Nairobi.

Days 15 - 23: Tanzanian highlights
Re-stocking at Nairobi, we head south to Tanzania. From our base at the pleasant safari gateway town of Arusha, which sits at the base of Mt Meru, we can opt to undertake a 3 day safari in smaller all-terrain vehicles to the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation area and Serengeti. The Serengeti is where the wildebeest migration to the Mara originates. At many times of the year, there are vast numbers of these ungainly beasts grazing on pasture - the hunted in eager view of the hunters. The Serengeti is host to a wide variety of game including - elephant, giraffe, zebra, hyena, African wild dog, lion, cheetah, leopard, and a dizzying array of hooved beasts. The vast volcanic Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unbroken caldera in the world. Measuring 100 sq. miles with 600m walls, Ngorongoro is a microcosm of East African scenery and game. Zebra, wildebeest and other herbivores roam the pasture-rich crater floor as the hunters lie in wait. Colourful flamingo and a variety of other water birds congregate around the edge of the soda lake on the crater floor. Other game here includes leopard, black rhino, cheetah, hyena, jackal and buffalo. Continuing, we head east in the shadows of lofty Mt Kilimanjaro to the coast and Dar es Salaam. From here, we travel by ferry to the Arabian spice island of Zanzibar, where we spend three nights relaxing. Plenty of optional leisure pursuits are available including snorkelling, SCUBA diving, spice tours and boat trips. Please note that accommodation and meals are not included on Zanzibar.  For those preferring not to visit Zanzibar you can stay at our beachside campsite in Dar Es Salaam.

Days 24 - 33: Lake Malawi
Via Dar es Salaam, we continue south across Tanzania. Crisscrossing Mikumi Game Reserve, it’s common to see herds of elephant and giraffe crossing our roads, as we head to the lake nation of Malawi. Dominated by it’s huge lake, Malawi is a friendly nation and a great place to chill-out. At Chitimba Beach and/or Chintheche enjoy a host of optional aquatic activities, witness the local fisherman tending their daily catch and shop for African curios in the local villages. Continuing our journey, we leave Lake Malawi and cross over the frontier into neighbouring Zambia. Crossing the border into Zambia, we continue via the capital - Lusaka.

Days 34 - 41: Vic Falls & Botswana
At the Falls, over the course of our 3-day stay, get in touch with your wild side and revel in the choice of adrenaline activities available over the next couple of days. Anyone for white water rafting or bungee jumping? Crossing the border into Botswana, we visit Chobe National Park. Chobe has an impressive elephant and buffalo population. We enjoy a boat cruise here. An optional morning game drive is also available. Botswana is perhaps most famous for the Okavango Delta. From Maun, an optional 3-day excursion exploring the flora and faunarich wetlands by mokoro canoe is available.

Days 42 - 57: Namibia & South Africa
Departing Maun, we drive north-west over the border and into Namibia. Stocking up in Rundu, we camp along the Kavango River before pushing west to the spectacular Etosha National Park. We’ll enjoy morning and evening game drives at this vast park which supports a population of zebra, giraffe, impala, ostrich and predatory animals. Good night-time viewing of rhino, lion and elephant is also possible at the flood-lit in-camp water holes.  Travelling south through Damaraland - a region of stunning beauty, we visit a cheetah camp and the Spitzkoppe - a popular landmark that rises above the dusty Namib plains. At the old German colonial settlement of Swakopmund, we can opt to go dune quad biking, sand boarding, sky-diving or just chillout on the oceanfront. Further south, at Namib-Naukluft National Park, we can opt to scale Dune 45 - one of the surreal blood red and apricot coloured sand dunes. Continuing southwards, we drive to the imposing Fish River Canyon before arriving at Orange River, where canoeing trips are available. From here, we travel into RSA and south into the wine-growing region of Cederberg. Arrival into Cape Town on day 56 will be late in the afternoon and our expedition ends after breakfast on Saturday - day 57.

PLEASE NOTE: Northbound itinerary will have a night in the Helmringhausen area after Fish River Canyon.