Kenya Parks - Festival 2009 Extension

Friday 29th May 2009

Fly to Nairobi and transfer to Serena for the night.

Saturday 30th May 2009

Transfer to Lake Naivasha and stay at Loldia House.

Lake Naivasha is a picturesque fresh water lake in the Great Rift Valley, 1880 metres above sea level. The scenery and cool refreshing air have always attracted those seeking to get away from it all - Joy Adamson, author of Born Free, made the shores her home, as did Lord Errol and a host of other well-known and infamous personalities. The Adamson home can still be visited today and afternoon tea served on the lawn is a popular outing. Over 400 bird species make Lake Naivasha a paradise for bird lovers and researchers and regular sightings include: the Brimstone Canary, Spectacled Weaver, the Yellow Collared Love-Bird, the Red-Billed Finch and the Lammergeyer. The lake has a healthy fish population, which attracts Cormorants, Black Herons, Pied Kingfishers and many other water birds. In addition, lush vegetation supports a variety of wild animals such as Cape Buffalo, Dik-Dik, giraffe, impala, Waterbuck, Warthog and Colobus Monkeys; and you will almost certainly catch sight of Hippos lazily watching proceedings from the surface of the lake. Close by is Hell's Gate National Park - named because of the giant red cliffs from which geothermal underground steam emerges.

Sunday 31st May 2009

Day trip to Lake Nakuru National Park.

Lake Nakuru is a small, shallow, alkaline lake, 160 kilometres north of Nairobi in the Great Rift Valley. The Park, which surrounds it, is particularly famous for its large rhino population, and both Black and White Rhinos are successfully thriving here. The Rothschild's Giraffe is another rare species and the park also has its fare share of Cape Buffalo, African Wild Dog, zebra, Eland, Waterbuck and Lion. The park is also well known for its high number of Leopard sightings in recent years. The Acacia and Euphorbia Forests are havens for animals during the heat of the day, making Nakuru an excellent game-viewing destination, whilst the "hippo pool" is a favourite spot for picnics. Lake Nakuru is also world famous for one of the greatest bird spectacles on earth - myriads of fuchsia pink Lesser, and Greater Flamingos whose numbers are legendary. They feed on the abundant algae, which thrive in the warm waters, and their vast numbers can quite literally turn the lake pink in colour! The lake itself varies from five to 30 square kilometres - depending on rainfall and is rich with 400 resident species of birds on the lake and in the surrounding park. Thousands of Little Grebes and White-Winged Black Terns are frequently seen as are Black-Winged Stilts, Pelicans, Cormorants, Avocets, ducks and - in the European winter - the migrant waders.

Monday 1st June 2009

Transfer to Samburu National Park and stay at Larsen's Camp for the next three nights.

Tuesday 2nd June 2009 and Wednesday 3rd June 2009

Samburu National Park.

Samburu National Reserve lies 325 kilometres north of Nairobi in the hot and arid fringes of the vast northern region of Kenya. In Samburu the rugged scenery, endless skies and vast panoramas are a stunning backdrop for some of Africa's rarest game. There are also hundreds of different bird species. The reserve is part of the lands of the colourful Samburu people, close relatives of the Maasai, and harbours a number of wildlife species rarely found elsewhere in any numbers. These include Grevy's Zebra, Reticulated Giraffe and the Beisa Oryx. The long-necked Gerenuk is a graceful antelope, which spends much of its time in a bi-pedal stance seeking succulence among the withered scrub, which dots this harsh terrain. Scenically and faunally dramatic, for most of the year Samburu is scorched under the unsympathetic equatorial sun, but relief comes from the wide swathe of the Ewaso Ngiro River, which rises some hundreds of kilometres to the west on the foothills of the Aberdares and vanishes beyond Samburu in the recesses of the Lorian Swamp. The river is at its best in the reserve, broad and sluggish with a large population of crocodile seen on sandbanks at almost every bend. Hippo are also present and the river is fringed with giant Acacias, Figs and Doum Palms which provide shade and sustenance to the wildlife which comes to water. Herds of Elephant roam the gaunt hills, which punctuate the scrubland and where occasional clusters of the vividly coloured desert rose challenge the arid surroundings.

Thursday 4th June 2009

Fly back to Nairobi and have dinner at Carnivore Restaurant before your flight back home.

Friday 5th June 2009

Arrive in the UK.