East African Safari

Day 1 · Home → Nairobi

Home→Nairobi

Day 2 · Nairobi

Day 3 · Nairobi → Amboseli

Ease off the long-haul with the David Sheldrick elephant orphanage at the 11am feeding, then hand-feed the herd at the Giraffe Centre.

Lunch at the Karen Blixen house under the Ngong Hills, and a final gear check — August is peak dry season, pack layers for the cold dawn game drives.

Nairobi→Amboseli

Day 4 · Amboseli

Day 5 · Amboseli → Masai Mara

A light bush plane south to the plains beneath Kilimanjaro — the mountain hides in cloud by mid-morning, so shoot it at first light.

Big elephant herds crossing the swamps with the snow-capped summit behind: the classic East Africa frame.

Amboseli→Masai Mara

Day 6 · Masai Mara

Day 7 · Masai Mara

Day 8 · Masai Mara

Day 9 · Masai Mara → Serengeti

The trip's beating heart — four nights on the Mara for the **Great Migration**, when a million-plus wildebeest and zebra mass along the river.

Dawn and dusk game drives from the lodge: lion prides on the kopjes, cheetah on the termite mounds, leopard in the riverine trees.

A morning staked out at a Mara River crossing point — the wait is long and the crossing is chaos, crocodiles and all.

Optional dawn **hot-air balloon safari** over the plains with a champagne bush breakfast on landing (*book on arrival*); an afternoon visit to a Maasai village.

Masai Mara→Serengeti

Day 10 · Serengeti

Day 11 · Serengeti

Day 12 · Serengeti → Ngorongoro

Charter flight across the border into Tanzania (carry USD cash for the visa) — the Mara's ecosystem simply continues as the endless Serengeti.

Game drives among the granite kopjes and the acacia plains; the southern herds and the predators that shadow them.

Sundowners on the savanna, then nights under a sky thick with stars and the distant contact-calls of lions.

Serengeti→Ngorongoro

Day 13 · Ngorongoro

Day 14 · Ngorongoro → Stone Town

Drive the rim road to the Crater — a collapsed caldera that is a natural amphitheatre of wildlife.

A full day on the crater floor: black rhino among the Big Five here, flamingos on the soda lake, and a stop at Olduvai Gorge, cradle of humankind, on the way out.

Ngorongoro→Stone Town

Day 15 · Stone Town

Day 16 · Stone Town → Nungwi

Fly via Arusha to the spice island for a total change of pace — trade dust for the Indian Ocean.

Get lost in the coral-stone lanes: the carved doors, the old slave market, Freddie Mercury's birthplace, and a **spice-farm tour**; end at the Forodhani night market grazing on Zanzibar pizza.

Stone Town→Nungwi

Day 17 · Nungwi

Day 18 · Nungwi

Day 19 · Nungwi

Day 20 · Nungwi

Day 21 · Nungwi → Home

Wind down at the north tip: turquoise water, powder sand, and a tide that actually swims (unlike the east coast).

Snorkel or dive the Mnemba atoll for turtles and reef fish; a sunset dhow cruise with the sail catching the last light.

Three more do-nothing days — the earned reward after two weeks of 5am wake-ups.

Nungwi→Home