Rift Valley Keekorok Exploration

On arrival at Nairobi International Airport, we meet you and guide you to your transfer to Eka Hotel or similar. Once you check in, the afternoon is at your leisure – you can make the most of the hotel’s facilities, including two restaurants, a bar and a swimming pool. This contemporary hotel offers comfort and convenience before we begin the journey across Kenya. Overnight in Nairobi.

After breakfast, we leave Nairobi for the fertile highlands, descending the Rift Escarpment on a road built by Italian prisoners of war during the Second World War – look out for the small chapel at its foot. We pass the Longonot earth satellite station, cross the valley to Narok and continue through fields of wheat and barley to the Maasai Mara, arriving at Keekorok Lodge in time for lunch and a rest if you wish. In the afternoon, we head out on our first game drive. Keekorok was the Mara’s first lodge and sits directly on the route of the annual Great Migration – at its peak, hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle move through the area, closely followed by predators. Rooms and shared areas use sandstone, cedarwood and other indigenous materials. In front of the lodge, a 300 metre elevated walkway winds through a small riverine forest to a bar overlooking a dam where resident hippos and other wildlife are regularly seen. The lodge is unfenced, so elephants and buffalo may wander near the grounds – watchmen are on constant lookout. Lunch and dinner included. Overnight in the Maasai Mara.

After an early breakfast, we head out on a morning game drive in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, home to the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and black rhino – as well as abundant antelope, gazelle and wildebeest. We return to the lodge for lunch and time to relax – you may wish to take a siesta – before we visit a Maasai village and then set off on an afternoon game drive, arriving back at the lodge as the sun sets. Breakfast, lunch and dinner included. Overnight in the Maasai Mara.

After breakfast, we leave the Maasai Mara and drive north through Kenya’s wheat and barley belt to Narok, crossing the Great Rift Valley plains and climbing the Mau Escarpment to reach Lake Nakuru around midday. After lunch, we head out on an afternoon game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park – a 188 square kilometre, fully fenced reserve where both black and white rhinos are carefully protected and now number more than 50. The lake is often tinged pink by thousands of flamingos, and we keep watch for Rothschild’s giraffes, buffaloes, leopards, zebras, elands, waterbucks and lions.We check in to Lake Nakuru Lodge, set in the south east ecological niche of the park with commanding views of the lake and the flamingos. The lodge sits within Kenya’s most densely populated wetland national park – one of six Ramsar sites in the country. Lush gardens surround the lodge and cottages, and an evening programme of activities and entertainment is available. Breakfast, lunch and dinner included. Overnight in Lake Nakuru.

After an early breakfast, we continue to Lake Naivasha for a boat ride. Leaving the Rift Valley behind, we travel on to Nairobi, arriving late morning. You will be dropped at Eka Hotel at around 12:00 – ready to continue with your individual arrangements. If you are flying today, book departures from 15:30 onwards.