Tour Highlights

Thanks to our small group size, we can get to the heart of our destination, visit places that other tours miss, and get to know the locals.

This is an active trip. This program covers a lot of ground each day. We will spend most of our time driving in safari vehicles that cannot be air-conditioned over roads that are often rough and bumpy. Only "bush toilets" are available during game drives. There are many early mornings. Electricity in the camps is provided by generator and may not be available 24 hours a day. Many of the accommodations are built in the traditional local style and have no air-conditioning. Passengers traveling from Kenya into Tanzania will be required to carry proof of yellow fever vaccination, and are encouraged to consult their health-care providers regarding malaria prophylaxis. We suggest you check with your health-care provider before signing up for this tour. Some of our tours require walking or stairs between tents. Safari vehicles have high ground clearance and require agility to embark and disembark. During this tour, you may come into proximity of wild animals whose actions can be unpredictable. Certain inherent risks are involved which should be considered at your own discretion. This is a Small Group program. Kenya Africa Safari>

June 3 Day 2 Jessica Krane Pickering and I are on a Kenya Safari and only 7 people in our group with two guides and two large jeeps. Nairobi is a busy city and we will see giraffes and elephants. But we are stuck in traffic now!

June 3 Gate1travel guide gave us each a hat, a metal water bottle and a blanket. At the Nairobi elephant orphanage We pet the baby elephants. I sponsored a rescued baby for a year in my grandson, Tobbin's name.

June 3 We fed and petted giraffes. My sweet granddaughter Jessica is helping me over rough ground. It was a delight experience.

June 3 We toured where clay beads were made. Please watch Jessica dancing with the beaders.

June 3 We ate lunch and dinner at beautiful Kenyan restaurants surrounded with tropical plants. Dinner was at a place where they grilled all meats. The food is quite good.

June3 Our African Safari group is fun. Went to four great places and two big dinners today.

Our June4 trip was wonderful as we drove to a game reserve and saw many different kinds of animals. On our way we saw beards of camels, sheep, cows, goats, and more all with their own herders. They move openly along the road as do people.

June 4 we stopped at a great place, the Trout Tree, for lunch. The place is built around the large tree. I had fresh trout.

June4 we drove up to 8500 feet. And the area is famous for growing flowers as we descended to 6500 feet there are miles of hot houses were they grow roses, carnations, and tulips. These are taken each morning in refrigerated trucks to the airport and flown to the Netherlands where they are sold. And almost to the reserve er saw the Camels.

June4 arrival at the Samburu National game park and we check in and immediately do our first tour seeing giraffes, elephants and many other animals. Really exciting being next to them in the wild. The top of our keep pops up and we stand to see well.

June 4 We are at samburu Intrepid resort and sleeping in a tented camp. The food is gourmet and the setting by the river is fabulous. All meals are accompanied by a flutist.

June5 we began at 6 with coffee and 6:30 back into the game parks. Since we saw so many different animals yesterday, today we are looking for the lions. But we did not find them. Again we saw giraffes, crocodiles, elephants, dikidiks, ostrich, monkeys, zebras, etc.

6/6/2023 we are leaving the park and saw on the way a large group of elephants, impalas, Gernuks, ostriches and more. It was such a wonderful experience to be so close to free animals. They just ignore us so I assume it is due to all the Safari tours. Our guide said the rains made a great difference as last year this time there were no grasses and the elephants were knocking down trees to get food and water. We were at a wonderful camp also.

6/6 we arrived at the country club around 11 in time for a fabulous lunch. This place offers horse back riding, biking, swimming, nature walking with a guide and a security guard due to wild animals and more. The altitude is about 8000 and we are near those large industrial farms raising flowers. Out our cabin door we have a beautiful trumpet tree on one side and a large bottle brush tree on the other. There are so many flowers I feel like it is heaven. I’m showing only what is around our lodge. Incredible. A deer came up to me and the peacocks are making themselves heard.

6/7 Today we went to Nakumu park and toured the lake seeing many birds. And most exciting we saw a black rhinosorus and 8 white rhinosorus also we saw baboons, warthogs, and water buffalo. We saw many animals as we went from 9000 feet to 5800. We passed the equator again. The flower hot houses are every where and employee 40,000. All those flowers sold through Amsterdam. They grow best here due to the altitude. And they grow freely everywhere on the roads.

6/8 we are on our second day at lake Naivasa and had breakfast in the bush and took a great boat ride to Cresent Island to see the hippos. They don’t swim but just walk into the water. We saw many other animals and birds. I like the African fit Eagle. There is a lot of water hyacinth just like home. My favorite tree we see everywhere is the umbrella tree. After lunch we bought out the gift shop and then had a fun cooking class. Jess and Naj made apple pie and danced with the two bakers teaching them. Stephanie and Randy did a terrific salad. Kamal and I butchered the whole lamb leg and marinated it in rosemary, onion, and garlic, etc. We cooled it for an hour and then baked it. After some free time to rest we had a bird presentation and finally dined on the food we made.

6/9 This Masai park is incredible. Loaded with many zebras and every animal conceivable. We saw many before entering the park but then before the security checkin and our cabins there were more yet. Our new lodging’s are outstanding. The food was from a menu instead of buffet and served gourmet style.

6/9 late afternoon we went on another game drive. We saw water buffalo, lions, giraffes, hippos, and more. Then we had an excellent dinner with Masai entertainment. See the video at the end.

6/10 Saturday We were on the road at 5 am to catch our hot air balloon. Afterwards we were treated to a champagne breakfast.