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ON THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE BIG FIVE - 7 days / 6 nights ITINERARY

1st DAY: NAIROBI - SAMBURU

2nd DAY: SAMBURU

3nd DAY: SAMBURU - SOLIO

4th DAY: SOLIO - NAIVASHA

5th DAY: NAIVASHA - MASAI MARA

6th DAY: MASAI MARA

7th DAY: MASAI MARA - NAIROBI On the footsteps of the Big Five …from Samburu to Masai Mara

Kenya is still one of those countries where the wilderness still takes up a big space. Its unicity is due to its variety of fauna, natural reserves, and magnificent landscapes. Once over the Equator all through the year, you can count on sunny days with blue skies and starry nights.

During this trip, you will be submerged into timeless natural landscapes, at the discovery of local traditions so well adapted to the environment and in total harmony with nature and the huge variety of wild animals.

Be ready to be exposed to an incredible beauty, where finding a leopard hanging lazily on a branch looks like the most normal thing. Or a rhinoceros hiding behind swampy bushes, a pack of lions resting in the shade of acacias, or herd of elephants or buffalos crossing leisurely the road.

FIRST DAY “NAIROBI - SAMBURU”

06:00 am Departure to Samburu national park

The road takes us across Kenyan plateau among pineapple trees, tobacco, and fields of grains. Having passed Nanyuki (a town founded during the colonialist time) we descend onto the plateau reaching Isiolo

01:00 pm arrival at Samburu reserve for lunch and check-in

Samburu National Reserve is 350km away from Nairobi and it extends over 165 km square in the region of Rift-Valley along the rivel Ewaso Nyiro. In this region, we find all the known African wild animals along with some endangered species such as the Grevy zebra

04:00 pm Safari time

07:30 pm return to camp for dinner and overnight THE SAMBURU RESERVE

The reserve takes its name from the nomadic shepherd people that live in this semi-arid area. Samburu is characterized by arid savannah, palms and imensly big forest of acacias along the Ewaso Ngiro river which springs in the Aberdares mountain and hosts a huge population of hippopotamus and crocodiles.

With an abundance of avifauna that comprises over 350 colorful types of birds including kingfisher, marabou, goshawks, hornbills, kites, along with Somalian ostriches, falcons, sandgrouse, vultures, eagles and so many more...

The Samburu National Reserve was one of the two areas in which conservationists George and raised Elsa the Lioness made famous in the best-selling book and award- winning movie ‘’.

SECOND DAY “SAMBURU RESERVE”

07:00 am Breakfast followed by Safari

01:00 pm Return to camp for lunch

04:00 pm Afternoon Safari

07:30 pm Dinner at camp and overnight

THE BIG FIVE

“Big Five” is the term given to game animals that are most difficult to hunt on foot. These are the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo. The term was coined by big-game hunters and survived although the practice of hunting has by now disappeared. Today it relates to the most desired animals to be seen by tourist while on an African safari. Here’s a list of ten facts to impress your friends after your trip.

1) The White Rhinoceros is not white but a color varying from slate grey to yellowish brown. The name comes from the dutch ‘weid’ which is effect means wide and it refers to the wide muzzle of the animal.

2) Most plant seeds must traverse the elephant’s stomach in order to germinate. At least a quarter of trees of African forests spread mainly this way.

3) The leopard is a nocturnal animal, very much solitary and mysterious, rarely seen in daylight.

4) A lion’s mane indicates its age, the darker in color the older the animal.

5) The water buffalo and the Cape buffalo although they look-alike they have very different behaviors, mainly because the last has never been domesticated.

6) The rhinoceros is the most at threat out of the ‘big Five’. What’s menacing this imposing and of peaceful nature creature is the interest in commercializing its horn. Chinese traditional medicine uses horn powder to cure fever, epilepsy, malaria, poisonings, and abscesses. Whereas in Yemen, the horn is used as the handle of the famous “jimbia” the curved dagger.

7) Elephants communicate with eachother at long distance using low-frequency sound inaudible to the human ear.

8) The leopards are fantastic climbers that carry their pray up on high branches away from other predators such as lions and hyenas. They are also great swimmers and sometimes feeding on fish and crabs.

9) The main predator of the buffalo is the lion. Buffalos live in herds and are highly belligerent reason why they are a dangerous catch, one that can inflict serious wounds to the feline.

10) The rhinoceros have a bad eyesight to the point that they ‘attack’ trees and rocks, but its highly compensated by the great auditive and smell senses.

THIRD DAY “SAMBURU TO THE SOLIO RESERVE”

07:00 am Breakfast and departure to Solio Reserve

Solio Reserve is found inbetween Mt Kenya and the Aberdare massive. This extensive region of approximately 45000 hectares is home to a great number of white and black Rhinoceros.

01:00 pm Arrival at the lodge, lunch and check-in

03:00 pm Afternoon Safari

07:30 pm Dinner and overnight THE SOLIO RESERVE

Solio nature reserve is a tiny gem situated in the heart of Kenya. Only forty-five square kilometer at the foot of Mt Kenya and the sanctuary for Rhinoceros.

Unfortunately, in some Asian countries, the horn of a rhino is considered an aphrodisiac and is therefore hunted and sold for a fortune. As a result of, this magnificent creature that not long ago, less than a decade, was the uncontested lord of the African plains, is not disappearing.

The Solio sanctuary is one of the few reserves that took on preserving this splendid herbivore. The area is a succession of soft hills covered in thick bushes with a stupendous valley of yellow bark acacias, also known as ‘fever tree’, along which you can find undisturbed packs of impalas, giraffes, herds of buffalos and hundreds of baboons.

FOURTH DAY “SOLIO TO LAKE NAIVASHA”

07:00 am Departure after breakfast to Lake Naivasha

01:00 pm Check-in at camp

03:00 pm Boat trip on the lake

07:30 pm Return to camp for dinner and overnight LAKE NAIVASHA

Lake Naivasha presents itself at the most elevated point of the Kenyan Rift Valley at 1884m within a complex geological combination of volcanic rocks and sedimentary deposits from an ancient and larger Pleistocene era lake.

Apart from seasonal streams, the lake is fed by the constant rivers Malewa and Gilgil. There is no visible exit, but since the lake water is relatively fresh it is assumed to have an underground outflow.

The freshwater lake has its name deriving from the Masaai language ‘Nai’posha’ meaning ‘rough water’ due to the sudden storms which can arrive.

The lake has a surface area of 139 square kilometers and is surrounded by a swamp which covers 64 square kilometers. The lake as a depth of 6 meters with the deepest area found near Crescent island where it can reach 30 meters.

The lake is home to a vast fauna which includes over 400 species of birds and a considerable population of hippos. As for the fish community, this has been highly variable over time due to changes in climate, fishing and the introduction of invasive species.

FIFTH DAY “FROM LAKE NAVAISHA TO MASAI MARA”

07:00 am Departure after breakfast for the famous Masai Mara reserve

01:00 pm Arrival to camp - check-in and lunch

04:00 pm Safari until sundown

07:30 pm Return to camp for dinner and overnight MASAI MARA

The faunal reserve of Masai Mara (or Maasai Mara) is the big natural reserve situated in the south-western parts of Kenya on the Serengeti plains. It extends over a wide surface of 1500 square kilometers primarily consisting of shrubby and arboreal savannah stretching over extensive plains and hills tangled with rivers leading into Lake Victoria.

The border with the Serengeti Park in Tanzania, together with which it forms a unique ecosystem, is known for the great concentration of fauna and the famous migration of zebra and cranes which takes place between October to April. Although probably the most iconic image of the park is the lion, founds in big packs, alongside the other ‘big five’.

The main river is the Mara, in full during the rainy season between April and May. Only half full during the migration period which attracts cranes, zebras, and gazelles from the neighbouring Serengheti park to the grassy riverside of the Mara. The first shift starts on the plains of Loita, the second (also known as ‘The great migration’) originates in the south and holds up to 1.300.000 cranes and 200.000 zebras. The migration is itself is worth the trip as much for sighting the herbivores as for the predators.

SIXTH DAY “MASAI MARA”

07:00 am Breakfast and morning safari

01:00 pm Return to camp for lunch

04:00 pm Safari

07:30 pm Dinner and overnight

SEVENTH DAY “RETURN TO NAIROBI”

07:00 am Back to the capital after breakfast along the road built by Italian prisoners in 1942 that climbs up the Rift Valley (a split in the Earth’s crust) of almost 3000km.

“It is very difficult, in geography as in morality, to understand the world without leaving your own home ”

Voltaire

Our Afreeca is a space without borders, barriers and limits. It is only by going elsewhere and beyond that, a person tests itself and allows life to reveal the unknown. An experiential laboratory for adventures and challenges for all, able and less able, where the voyage enables overcoming of own limits

Alberto, Jean-Pierre, Silvia

www.afreecaeclectic.com [email protected] facebook: www.facebook.com/afreecaeclectic Tel./ Whatsapp / Skype +254 717607361

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