Today is departure day, and you fly to Kenya with stopovers on the way.

You will be met at the airport by our local guide, who will drive you to your hotel. After a short break, when you can freshen up, your first encounter with some of Africa’s wild animals awaits you! You’ll be visiting “The Giraffe Centre”, where you get right up close to the giraffes.

Lunch is enjoyed at Karen Blixen Coffee Garden – the old administration building at the writer’s coffee plantation.

If time permits, there will be a chance to visit the nearby Kazuri ceramics workshop and jewellery factory, where single mothers make clay beads – a quite remarkable employment project.

There will also be time to relax a little today before the adventure really starts tomorrow!

After breakfast, the tour heads north. You cross the equator near Mount Kenya and are given a demonstration of the Coriolis effect, i.e. why the winds are deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.

After standing with a leg in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere, you drive to Samburu. Along the way, you will experience several climate and vegetation zones: plateaux, mountain areas and more dry areas. On your arrival in Samburu, you will check in to your lodge, where lunch is ready for you.

After lunch, the tour’s first game drive awaits you. Samburu is characterised by a number of animals which are only found here: Grevy’s zebra, the Gerenuk antelope, the enormous oryx, the Somali ostrich and the reticulated giraffe, to name but a few. On this tour, you actually have the opportunity to get right up close to no fewer than three giraffe species: reticulated giraffes in Samburu, Rothschild giraffes at Lake Naivasha and Masai giraffes in Masai Mara.

Samburu consists of no fewer than three reserves: Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba. Today, you will bring a packed lunch – and perhaps even breakfast – with you in the car so you have the whole day to experience the varied landscape and the many exciting animals found here. In addition to the “special five” found here, you may also see elephants, leopards, lions, cheetahs, impalas and lots of birds. The locals believe that Samburu has a bird sound all of its own.

After breakfast, you will drive down into the Rift Valley – a 5,000-km-long gorge that extends through the whole of East Africa and is filled with ancient volcanic craters.

A few stops are made along the way – at Thompson Falls, among other places, where you can buy lunch if you wish.

If the traffic and time are on your side, you’ll go on an afternoon boat ride on Lake Naivasha, which is located at the highest point of the Great Rift Valley at 1,890 metres above sea level. The area is famous for its hippos, giraffes, waterbucks, vervet monkeys and profusion of birds, both sedentary and migratory. You go ashore and go for a walk on the small island, Crescent Island, which is home to zebras, giraffes and wildebeest, all of which are relatively tame, so you can get right up close to them. If the traffic means that you can’t make the boat trip today, you’ll do it tomorrow instead, before heading to Masai Mara.

The tour then heads to the fantastic Masai Mara National Park, the Kenyan part of the vast Serengeti ecosystem and, in the rainy season, home to probably the world’s largest concentration of wildlife.

On the mighty plains, you will encounter large herds of elephants, wildebeest, zebras, hippos, giraffes, gazelles and other herbivorous prey of the hunting lions, hyenas, leopards and cheetahs.

You will get right up close to a host of animals, which you experience from the protection of the Land Cruiser.

From July to October, you can experience the 1,200 km long migration for water and fresh grass of more than one million wildebeest along with a couple of hundred thousand zebras plus countless Thompson gazelles. It is during this migration that many gazelles fall victim to the huge Nile crocodiles when crossing the Mara River.

It’s a wonderful moment when, after a great safari, you get to experience the magnificent starry sky and hear the sounds of the savannah at night.

Over the next couple of days, you will be going on a game drive morning and afternoon. On some days, you will bring both breakfast and a picnic lunch with you, which you can enjoy along with amazing views, but this is all agreed with the guide, who knows everything about the animals and weather conditions.

You never have too much Masai Mara as the savannah is so changeable – the light, the colours, the smells, the mix of animals – everything changes all the time.

If you would like to visit a Masai village, you should arrange this with the guide on the safari. It costs 25 USD per person (not included in the price of the holiday) and this is paid directly to the Masai people. The Masai are a proud people who live just as their ancestors have done for 400 years. The Masai measure their wealth by the number of cows and wives they have. The more they have, the richer they are. The wives are each installed their own hut, and they do the domestic work, such as building huts and fetching firewood. Their daily diet is milk mixed with cattle blood and perhaps a little corn porridge. For celebrations, the meat of their own animals is served.

After breakfast, you will leave Masai Mara’s amazing wildlife and drive to Nairobi, from where you fly on to the exotic island of Zanzibar, where you will be spending six nights.

On your arrival in Zanzibar, our representative will be waiting to drive you to the hotel, where you will be welcomed by friendly staff.

It is possible to purchase a direct flight from Masai Mara to Nairobi to avoid the drive. Contact us for a price.

The days are spent at your leisure.

Located in the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar consists of the main islands of Unguja (unofficially known as Zanzibar) and Pemba, as well as myriad small islands. When it comes to nature and culture, the island of Zanzibar is truly spoilt: white sandy beaches, azure sea and a stunning coral reef. A warm and sunny climate all year round. The island’s dramatic history includes Arab sultans, Portuguese seafarers, slave trade and European explorers, all of which have left their mark on the island. And one of Africa’s most exciting cities, packed with beautiful Arabic architecture. Not forgetting the delicious Swahili cuisine and the friendly people.

You are picked up at the hotel and driven to the airport, where your journey home starts.

You arrive in the UK after a fantastic holiday.