7-Day Hartebeest Safari

Welcome to Kenya. After clearing immigration at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, you are met by your Gip Adventure driver-guide and transferred to your hotel in Nairobi, the lively capital that serves as the gateway to East Africa's great safaris.

If you land early, ask us about a short afternoon visit to the Giraffe Centre or the Karen Blixen Museum at the foot of the Ngong Hills. Otherwise, settle in, enjoy dinner and a full safari briefing, and rest well before your journey into the wild begins. Overnight in Nairobi.

Leave Nairobi after breakfast and travel through the farmland and forests of the central highlands, crossing the equator near Nanyuki, to reach Ol Pejeta Conservancy in around 3–4 hours. Mount Kenya rises to the north-east, a magnificent backdrop to the plains.

Settle in over lunch, then head out for an afternoon game drive. The conservancy's grassland and acacia woodland support rhinos, lions, elephants and buffalo, as well as species missing from most southern parks, such as Grevy's zebra, beisa oryx and Jackson's hartebeest. Dinner and overnight at Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Before returning to camp, call in at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary and at the enclosure of the last two northern white rhinos on earth. Look out this afternoon for the conservancy's Jackson's hartebeest, a rare, richly coloured form found only in a few places in Kenya and Uganda, often grazing in small herds on the open grassland.

After breakfast, leave Laikipia and drive west via Nyahururu, where you stop to see Thomson's Falls plunging into a forested gorge, before descending into the Great Rift Valley to Lake Nakuru National Park, a journey of around 4 hours.

After lunch, set out on an afternoon game drive in this compact, fenced park on the shore of a Rift Valley soda lake. Lake Nakuru is home to more than 100 black and white rhinos and the endangered Rothschild's giraffe, while flamingos and pelicans gather along the shoreline and leopards hide in the yellow fever-tree forest. Dinner and overnight at Lake Nakuru.

Lake Nakuru also holds a small population of Jackson's hartebeest, and the open grassland near the lakeshore is one of the best places to look for them.

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.

Head out at dawn, when the predators are most active and the light is soft and golden. Morning is the best time to find lions returning from the night's hunt, cheetahs scanning the plains from termite mounds and hyenas at a kill. Return to camp for breakfast or enjoy it out in the bush, then continue exploring until lunch.

In the afternoon, visit a Maasai village near the reserve. The Mara is named after the Maasai, who described the land as spotted for its scattered trees and cloud shadows. Meet the families, watch the warriors' famous jumping dance and learn how their way of life is intertwined with the land and its wildlife. Finish with a sunset game drive before dinner and overnight in the Masai Mara.

On today's drives, watch for Coke's hartebeest, the Mara's own kongoni, standing on termite mounds as lookouts while they graze the plains among topis, wildebeest and zebras.

Enjoy another full day in the reserve, this time exploring towards the Mara River with a picnic lunch. Hippos crowd the river pools, giant Nile crocodiles bask on the banks, and the riverine forest is a favourite haunt of leopards. During the migration months, this is where the famous crossings take place.

On the open plains, look for cheetahs, which favour the Mara's short grass for hunting, and for the elephants, buffalo, giraffes, topis and elands that make every drive different. With over 400 bird species recorded, the birdlife is superb too, from secretary birds to martial eagles. Return to camp at sunset for dinner and overnight in the Masai Mara.

Rise early for a last game drive in the Masai Mara as the sun comes up over the plains, then return to camp for breakfast. Afterwards, drive back to Nairobi, around 5–6 hours via Narok, with a lunch stop on the way.

On arrival in Nairobi you are transferred to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in time for your onward flight, or to a city hotel if you are staying longer. We hope you leave with wonderful memories and a heart full of Kenya. Safe travels.