12-Day Across Wild Kenya: Where Rhinos Roam

Karibu Kenya! On arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, your Gip Adventure representative will be waiting in the arrivals hall to welcome you and help with your luggage. After a short briefing you are driven to your hotel in Nairobi to check in, freshen up and rest after your flight.

Depending on your arrival time, the rest of the day is yours to relax. In the evening your guide will run through the safari ahead, answer your questions and make sure you have everything you need for an early start tomorrow. Dinner and overnight in Nairobi.

Rise early for a morning game drive in Nairobi National Park, just 7 km from the city centre and one of Kenya's most important rhino sanctuaries. Black rhinos browse in the thickets and white rhinos graze the open grassland, while lions, buffalo, giraffes and zebras move across plains framed by the skyscrapers of the capital, a view found nowhere else on earth.

Late in the morning, visit the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust nursery to watch orphaned baby elephants (and occasionally a young rhino) at their public feeding hour. After lunch, there is time for the Giraffe Centre, where you can feed Rothschild's giraffes by hand, before returning to your hotel for dinner and overnight in Nairobi.

After breakfast, drive north from Nairobi through the green central highlands to Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a journey of around 3–4 hours. Spread across the Laikipia plateau between the Aberdare Range and Mount Kenya, Ol Pejeta is one of Africa's great conservation success stories.

After lunch at your camp, set out on an afternoon game drive. Ol Pejeta protects more than 100 black rhinos, the largest population in East Africa, along with around 40 southern white rhinos, so the chances of meeting both species on your first afternoon are excellent. Lions, elephants, buffalo and leopards complete the Big Five. Dinner and overnight at Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Today is all about Ol Pejeta's rhinos. Head out at first light with your guide to track black rhinos in the whistling-thorn woodland, then visit the northern white rhino enclosure to meet the last two of their kind and learn about the conservancy's anti-poaching work. Ask us about joining the rangers and their dog unit to see how they protect these animals day and night.

After lunch, continue game viewing across the open plains, where white rhinos graze alongside buffalo, zebras and Jackson's hartebeest, and lions often rest in the shade. Later visit the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary before returning to your camp for dinner and overnight at Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Enjoy a final early game drive at Ol Pejeta, then return for breakfast before driving to Lake Nakuru National Park, around 4 hours. Along the way, stop at Thomson's Falls in Nyahururu, where the Ewaso Narok River tumbles over a 70 m drop, before the road winds down into the Rift Valley.

In the afternoon, explore Lake Nakuru on a game drive. Drive up to Baboon Cliff for a superb view over the lake and its pink fringe of flamingos, then search the grassland and woodland for rhinos, buffalo, lions and Rothschild's giraffes. Dinner and overnight at Lake Nakuru.

With a full day in the park, there is time to explore every corner of Lake Nakuru at an unhurried pace. Set out early to track black rhinos in the thickets and white rhinos grazing the lakeside grassland, then look for leopards in the yellow fever-tree forest and lions resting in the acacias. The park's buffalo herds are large and confident, and Rothschild's giraffes browse among the trees.

After a picnic lunch at one of the lakeside sites, visit Makalia Falls in the south of the park and climb to Lion Hill or Baboon Cliff for the views. More than 450 bird species have been recorded here, from flamingos and great white pelicans to fish eagles and kingfishers. Dinner and overnight at Lake Nakuru.

Leave Lake Nakuru after breakfast and travel through the farmland of the Mau region and the market town of Narok, where you can visit the Narok Museum to learn more about the Maasai, before entering the Masai Mara National Reserve. The drive takes around 5–6 hours, with game viewing on the way to your camp.

After lunch and a short rest, enjoy your first afternoon game drive in the Mara. Big cats are the stars here, and your guide will head for areas where lions and cheetahs have been seen in recent days. Dinner and overnight in the Masai Mara.

Enjoy a full day in the Masai Mara with a picnic lunch. Small numbers of black rhinos survive in the reserve, mostly in the thicker country towards the Mara Triangle and the Mara River, and your guide will search the areas where they have been seen recently. Finding one in the wild, rather than in a sanctuary, is one of the great prizes of any Kenya safari.

Along the way, the Mara delivers its usual drama: lions, cheetahs and leopards, elephants and buffalo, and, from around July to October, the vast herds of the Great Migration. Return to camp as the sun sets over the Oloololo hills for dinner and overnight in the Masai Mara.

Today belongs to the lions. The Masai Mara has one of the highest densities of lions in Africa, and its prides and coalitions of males are among the most closely watched anywhere. Set out at first light to find them while they are still active, perhaps feeding on a kill, calling across the plains or leading cubs to water.

With a picnic lunch on board, you can follow a pride through the day at your own pace, learning from your guide how lionesses cooperate in a hunt and how males defend their territory. In the late afternoon, as the heat eases, the cats begin to stir again, often the best time for action. Dinner and overnight in the Masai Mara.

After a final morning game drive in the Masai Mara and breakfast at camp, drive back through Narok and down into the Great Rift Valley to Lake Naivasha, a journey of around 5 hours with a lunch stop on the way.

Arrive in the afternoon and take time to unwind after your days on the plains. Stroll through the acacia-shaded grounds of your lodge, where colobus monkeys, waterbuck and even giraffes often wander, and listen for the haunting cry of the African fish eagle over the water as the sun sets behind the Mau. Dinner and overnight at Lake Naivasha.

Begin the day with a boat safari on Lake Naivasha, whose name comes from the Maasai word Nai'posha, meaning rough water. Drift past hippos and papyrus beds as fish eagles swoop over the water, then step ashore on Crescent Island for a guided walk among giraffes, zebras, wildebeest and waterbuck, one of the few places in Kenya where you can walk freely among the animals.

In the afternoon, visit Hell's Gate National Park, a dramatic landscape of red cliffs, rock towers and steaming geothermal vents, where buffalo, zebras and gazelles graze and you can explore on foot or by bicycle. Walk into the gorge with a local guide before returning to your lodge for dinner and overnight at Lake Naivasha.

Enjoy a relaxed breakfast overlooking the lake, with a final chance to watch the birdlife and perhaps a morning walk in the lodge grounds, before beginning the drive back to Nairobi, around 2–3 hours, climbing out of the Rift Valley with a last stop at the viewpoint above the valley floor.

On arrival in Nairobi, there is time for lunch before you are transferred to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your onward flight, or to a city hotel if you are extending your stay. Kwaheri, and thank you for travelling with Gip Adventure.