Day 1: Nairobi

Please note: Most flights arrive in the evening.

Upon arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Twiga Tours representatives will meet you with our traditional, unique & special welcome (bubbly, wet towels and presentation of authentic safari hat and a beautiful authentic canvas pouch filled with safari essentials). You will then proceed to your hotel for check-in. The rest of the day is spent at leisure with overnight at the hotel.

Overnight: Nairobi Serena Hotel

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Day 2: Nairobi

Please note: the order of the activities on this day may change.

After breakfast, you will proceed to Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. This centre has played a significant role in Kenya’s conservation efforts. The baby elephants are brought from the national park for a mud bath at the orphanage, where for an hour (i.e. 1100hrs - 1200hrs) you can get close to them and sometimes touch them. You may not feed the animals but will get a chance to view the handlers feeding them. The orphanage offers hope for any orphaned baby elephant fortunate enough to be found alive and so far, it is proud to have saved over 150 orphaned infant elephants, which would otherwise have perished. The baby elephants are raised at the orphanage with the intention of gradually reintegrating them into the wild. The age range of the elephants can vary from a few months to three years. Each elephant is assigned to its own keeper, who acts as a surrogate mother and will stay with the elephant until it is released back into the wild.

Thereafter, you will visit the renowned Giraffe Centre, where you will be given a rare opportunity to get up close to these gentle giants in this natural sanctuary, which was founded to protect the endangered Rothschild giraffe. Here you are able to climb to the top of a platform and stand eye to eye with the giraffes and feed them with small pellets.

You will then proceed to a local restaurant for lunch en route to Garden Children’s’ Home in Dagoretti, where you will get the opportunity to touch the lives of 300 adorable children. Garden Children’s’ Home is one of the many projects supported by the Manji Family through The Manji Foundation. The home is a refuge for abandoned children and has recently become a school, educating not only the students that have taken refuge behind their walls but also those who live in the area. Meet the founder of Garden Childrens’ Home Daddy Moses, and listen to his touching tale of how the centre was created. The hours will melt away as the talented students put together an enthralling afternoon performance with songs and dances to keep you entertained. The Manji Foundation supports the Home in various ways: one hot meal every day, providing stationary, uniforms, desks, and other learning essentials and most recently building a science lab for the school.

At approximately 1600hrs, you will return to your hotel to freshen up before your welcome dinner party at the Manji Family residence.

Overnight: Nairobi Serena Hotel

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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Day 3: Aberdare National Park

After a hearty breakfast, check out of your lodge and “cruise” off to the Aberdare National Park, where you will be met with a warm welcome at the Aberdare’s Country Club. Enjoy a delicious lunch at the Country Club, store any excess luggage you may have, then board lodge vehicles with your overnight bag to The Ark, your lodge for the night.

The Ark enjoys a great, serene location – inside the thick rainforest of Aberdare. Spend the afternoon and the night, viewing game from the lodge balconies. The floodlit water-hole is quite a magnet for a wide variety of wildlife species who come to drink, bathe, or lick salt. These include the Cape buffalo, elephant, leopard and water bucks, giant forest hogs, and lions among many others. The Lodge is designed with ‘decks’ from which numerous balconies and lounges provide superb vantage points for game viewing. A lot of silence is required so that the animals are not scared away, so remember to speak in low tones. A ground level bunker provides excellent photographic opportunities and takes you closer than you would believe possible to the wildlife. Enjoy dinner and overnight at your tree lodge.

Please note: A warm jacket/sweater and a sturdy pair of comfortable walking shoes are highly recommended.

Overnight: The Ark

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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Day 4: Samburu

Enjoy breakfast at The Ark and then transfer back to the Aberdare Country Club where your guides will be waiting for you. Continue your journey north to Samburu, arriving in time for lunch.

Enjoy an afternoon game-viewing drives in Samburu. These game reserves provide some of the best and most colourful game viewing in the country. The Ewaso Nyiro River which meanders through the vast, dry, doum palm-dominated reserve brings life along the green, scenic riverbanks, home and refuge to many wildlife. Meals and overnight at our camp.

Overnight: Surana Buffalo Springs

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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Day 5: Samburu

Enjoy an early breakfast followed by a game drive in the Samburu and Buffalo Springs Game Reserve. After lunch enjoy an afternoon game drive and a visit to the Samburu Manyatta. Experience the way this nomadic tribe lives in the harsh semi-arid region of northern Kenya.

As you visit the manyatta, you will also meet the ladies who create beaded gift items for our guests.

Overnight: Surana Buffalo Springs

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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Day 6: Ol Pejeta

After breakfast, you will depart for Ol Pejeta Conservancy arriving at your tented camp in time for lunch. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy and its sumptuous ranch were once the private domain of famed multi-millionaire, Adnan Kashoggi. We enjoy a game drive in this game-wealthy conservancy with a visit to the Chimpanzee Sanctuary, a charming haven established by the Jane Goodall Institute to provide sanctuary to orphaned chimps, and the specially protected refuge of black rhino. In fact, Sweetwaters boasts excellent game viewing with the highest ratio of game to area of any park or reserve in Kenya. The camp overlooks one of the busiest waterholes in the area and offers an astounding variety of animals including all the Big Five and myriad of plains game. This is Africa as Teddy Roosevelt saw it years ago when he led one of the first safaris to tour Africa in comfort and splendor. The tents at Sweetwaters will remind us of this past era. Dinner and overnight at your camp.

Overnight: Sweetwaters Tented Camp - Morani Wing

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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Day 7: Ol Pejeta

This full day will be spent in Ol Pejeta Conservancy an extensive morning game-viewing drive. Enjoy the afternoon at leisure at the camp. This evening, we will explore this park at night with a night game drive. This gives guests the opportunity to view the nocturnal wildlife as well as the regular wildlife.

Overnight: Sweetwaters Tented Camp - Morani Wing LDBB

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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Day 8: Elementaita

This morning after breakfast, depart for Lake Elementaita with a brief stop at Thompson’s Falls to arrive in time for lunch at Lake Elementaita Serena Lodge, a small, immaculately maintained safari camp on the shores of the glittering Lake Elementaita. Proceed later in the afternoon on a game-viewing drive in Soysambu Conservancy. The environment here is welcoming, one of the best places to relax, to unwind, to enjoy nature’s

beauty. Later in the evening return to the camp for dinner and overnight.

Overnight: Lake Elementaita Serena Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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Day 9: Elementaita

After an early breakfast, proceed to Lake Nakuru National park, a short distance f rom Elementaita. Enjoy a morning game drive. The environment here is welcoming, one of the best places to relax, to unwind, to enjoy nature’s beauty. The scenery is breathtaking; the sight of the virgin forest is reassuring. Some of the interesting places to visit include the baboon cliff, the lion hill and the Mau escarpment. The park is one of the best game viewing parks with various animal species including prides of lion, Cape buffalo, waterbucks, wart hogs, the endangered Rothschild giraffes, the black & white Rhino, the Burchell’s zebra, impalas, and the elusive leopard among many others. Over 300 bird species have been recorded here too. Return to Elementaita for a late lunch and afternoon by the pool, followed by dinner and overnight at the lodge.

Overnight: Lake Elementaita Serena Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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Day 10: Masai Mara

After a sumptuous breakfast, you will drive to Masai Mara. It is perhaps the only region left in Kenya where the visitor may see animals in the same super-abundance as existed a century ago. Enjoy a game-viewing drive enroute to the camp. Arrive for lunch and some relaxation time. In the afternoon you will proceed on another game-viewing drive in this vast and expansive reserve teeming with game. Mara game reserve is famous for her big five; the most sought after in the early 20th century, when Kenya was a hunters’ paradise. These include the lion, Cape buffalo, the savanna elephant, black rhino, and the elusive leopard. The vast savanna grasslands as far as the eye can see is home to impalas, Maasai giraffes, waterbucks, warthogs, Thompson & Grant’s gazelles, topis, and the resident wildebeests among many others.

Dinner and overnight at your camp.

Overnight: Tipilikwani Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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Day 11 & 12: Masai Mara

Enjoy the full days in Masai Mara with morning and afternoon game drives. All meals and overnight at the camp.

Overnight: Tipilikwani Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

*Optional Activity: Balloon Safari over the Mara plains followed by a champagne breakfast OR Visit a traditional Masai Manyatta (off the beaten track) and experience the culture of this world famous community. The Masai still live as they did for centuries -interact with these nomadic people and experience their way of life as you learn about their customs and traditions.

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Day 13: Depart

This morning we enjoy our breakfast and then check-out. We bid farewell to our wonderful lodge manager and his team then depart to Nairobi. Not empty-handed though. With us are photographs – a capture of the special moments we have had on this tour to immortalize the experience.

Enjoy a short flight to Nairobi where you will be met.

Proceed for lunch at the Cultiva Restaurant and then transfer to the hotel where a day room has been reserved for you. Thereafter, you will board the hotel shuttle for onward transfer to the departure terminal at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your onward flight.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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