Suggested Itinerary
HIGHLIGHTS
- Travel by horseback across Kenya’s most beloved landscapes
- A pop-up luxury tented camp will follow you from site to site
- Hear the calls of the lion and hyena at night
- Have a picnic lunch under some acacias
- View the big five and so much more in these wildlife-dense lands
Day 1: Nairobi – Naibosho
Olare Lamun
You will be collected from your Nairobi Hotel or directly from the airport and transferred to Wilson Airport for a 10:30am charter flight or 10am schedule flight to Naibosho.
It is a beautiful flight, passing over the fertile Kikuyu Highlands before reaching the Great Rift Valley. We fly across the volcano studded floor of the Rift before reaching the Loita Hills and Naibosho Air strip. You will be met by your guide and take an hour’s drive to camp. Reach the camp in a grove of acacia trees by a small stream at the southern edge of the Loita Plains at Olare Lamun (the rhino salt lick) in time for lunch. There will be an evening ride.
Day 2: Nairobi – Naibosho
Olare Lamun
Take a full day to explore this remote area with abundant game. Drives, rides and walks may be taken from camp.
Day 3: Naibosho – Maasai Mara
Olare Orok
Today is our first moving day, traversing land on horseback! We break camp early, as it is the longest ride of the trip covering nearly 50kms. We ride across rolling open plains and the game generally becomes more plentiful as we approach the Mara ecosystem. We should see herds of zebra, topi, giraffe, wildebeest, gazelle and there is a good chance of seeing elephant and buffalo as well.
We reach our campsite on the edge of the Masai Game Reserve on the Olare Orok late afternoon. From camp we are likely to hear lion and hyena at night and the abundance of game is apparent everywhere.
Day 4: Maasai Mara
Olare Oruk
Saddle up! Today is a full day of morning and evening rides from camp with the option of driving into the game park for some good photographic opportunities. From the Landrovers we can get much closer to lion, elephant and buffalo than we are able to do from the horses.
Day 5: Maasai Mara
Soit Olololol
Today, get ready for another moving day. We head west across the Mara plains and reach the Mara River on the Park boundary. We hopefully ford the river (unless in complete flood) at one of the famous wildebeest crossings and then head southwest across the Mara Triangle where we have our picnic lunch before ascending the Soit Olololol Escarpment to reach our camp in a forest glade overlooking the whole Mara ecosystem.
Day 6: Maasai Mara
Soit Olololol
We ride southwest along the top of the escarpment, enjoying glorious views to the east on excellent terrain for the horses. We hopefully see the beautiful Mrs Ross’ and Schalows Turaco as well as much plains game. We descend the escarpment on foot along a rocky cattle track and have a picnic lunch under some acacias at the foot of the escarpment.
After lunch we ride back through the Mara Triangle at the foot of the escarpment before ascending on a game trail. Many bachelor buffalo herds are a feature of the afternoon.
Day 7: Maasai Mara
Mara River
We descend the escarpment again and ride across to the same wildebeest crossing on the river. We head in a North Western direction and after lunch, we find our final campsite set up on the banks of the Mara River. Close by there are some hippo pools and their grunting at night is a special feature of this camp. Overnight Mara River.
Day 8: Departure
This morning you will fly back to Nairobi to catch your onward flight.
