Kenya is located on the east coast of Africa, with Nairobi as the capital city. I had the amazing experience of going on safari in Kenya, with my family. Travelling by jeep through the National game reserves and ending with a few nights relaxing on the beautiful white sandy beaches in Mombasa.

A direct flight from London to Nairobi, the hotel for the night was the Holiday Inn Nairobi. After checking in we were able to go and visit a local Elephant sanctuary. Here baby orphan Elephants are hand reared until they are old enough to be released back into the wild. You can watch the keepers feeding the elephants with giant baby bottles.

Start of the safari

So the safari started the next day, heading towards Samburu National Reserve 195 miles away. There were 25 of us and we got split into jeeps of 6, and embarked on our 6 hour drive. The journey took us through small villages, where all the locals stood at the side of the road waving and smiling as we drove past. This is when it becomes clear that Kenya is a developing country, with lots of homeless or living in poverty. They don’t seem phased by it, everyone is just so happy and friendly.

Our lunch stop took us off the dusty road, and onto a smaller, even more dusty track, wondering where on earth we were being taking to? Suddenly out of nowhere this little oasis appeared, a tree house set around a giant fig tree. welcome to the Trout Tree Restaurant, serving freshly farmed on site trout, or beef steak.

After eating and relaxing we jumped back in the jeeps towards the Samburu National Reserve.

Once through the gates of the reserve, our driver Key, stopped and pointed out all the animals that were in the area. Samburu boasts Ostrich, Grevys Zebra, Oryx, Reticulated Giraffe, Gerenuk, Elephants and Lions.

Our first Game drive

We checked into the Samburu game Lodge and straight away that early evening we were out for a game drive.
All the jeeps head out in different directions then radio each other when they find something. The drivers know where to go and how to stay out of the animals way and just let them approach us. It’s so amazing how close they get to you, its easy to forget at times that these are all wild animals.

I was astounded by how diverse the population of animals are. Every turn there was something different.
All the herbivores are comfortable together, but as soon as you see a Lion then that’s about all you will see in the area.

The evenings consisted of everyone boasting about what they had seen that day, trying to out do one another.
Situated next to a river the next 2 nights were at the Samburu game lodge, the rooms were all individual lodges in a row. All the meals on the safari were included. Buffet style and very westernised, but still fresh and tasty.

“It’s a hedgehog! wait, no it’s a Water Buffalo”

The next morning my Mum had announced that she had heard a hedgehog snuffing outside her lodge the previous night, but imagine her shock when she looked out of the window and saw a Water Buffalo!! None of the drivers and keepers believed her saying it was impossible for one to get that close to the lodges. She got an apology later in the day when it turned out the river level was quite low and the Buffalo was able to walk up the river towards our Lodges!

The next day consisted of a game drive before breakfast, a visit to a local Samburu tribe and another game drive about 4 pm. Every game drive was a different experience, all just as thrilling as the last.

Visiting a Local Tribe

Just after lunch we visited the Local Samburu tribe. We chatted to them and saw how they lived in the huts that they made. Made with mud, dung and straw. It was so hot inside theses huts. I started to feel faint from the heat and I had to get out. But these families easy live inside them. It was so interesting learning about their culture.
The local women invited the females from our party to participate in the dances. While the men joined in the jumping dance with the male tribe members. The goal is to see who could jump the highest. (obviously none of us did very well) It was amazing to see how high the males could jump and sometimes the oldest outshone the younger members.

The full days activities made us need a good nights sleep.

The Famous Treetops

The next destination the following day was Treetops in the Aberdare National Park, 115 miles away. Treetops became famously known when Queen Elizabeth (then Princess) was staying here when her father King George VI died making her the Queen.

Treetops is a very rustic hotel, with tree branches running through the rooms and corridors. The watering hole next to the hotel attracts Elephants and Water Buffalo. There is a buzzer system located in each room, notifying you in the night should an animal appear by the watering hole.

Just settling in for that night and the buzzer goes off, everyone rushing to the rooftop terrace (very quietly I must add) to see what was there. It was a Leopard and unfortunately we missed it. Wrapped in blankets hoping to spot something else we waited, but the elusive Leopard never came back.

Lake Naivasha

Lake Naivasha, in the Nakuru County was our next stop for 1 night. On the way we stopped at a very lush green place to see the Thompson falls. The impressive 74 m falls are situated on the Ewaso Ng’iro river. These drain from the Aberdare Mountain Range.

On arrival at the fresh water Lake Naivasha we found hundreds of Flamingos on the waters edge giving the view a nice pink hue. 

White Rhinoceros sleepily lie in the sand on the banks of the Lake. We visited Kenya in 2008, so 10 years later whilst writing this I have found out that the Northern White Rhinoceros that we saw, have reduced to only 2 females. There are now only 2 left in the entire world! That makes this subspecies pretty much extinct, so we were lucky to see them. It’s such a shame that a creature can be wiped out mainly by poachers. The Southern White Rhinoceros found in the south of Africa are surviving really well.

Masai Mara

The following day we headed 153 miles to the Masai Mara with 2 night stays at Keekorok Lodge. This lodge is in the reserve so at night an armed guard takes you to your individual accommodation in case of dangerous animals wandering around at night. Apparently the night before a pride of Lions just strolled through!
We heard noises in the middle of the night coming from the back of our lodge and quietly peeking out the window we saw a group of hippos just outside our room.

The lodge also boasts a bar overlooking a Hippo watering hole. It was nice just chilling after a busy day watching my favourite animal wallowing in the water and mud.

We had 2 more game drives the next day, and the Masai Mara boasts having the ‘big 5’. Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Black Rhinoceros and Elephant. We saw all but the Leopard, other groups did see one though.

Just after lunch we visited the River Mara where the great Wildebeest migration takes place. Each year 2 million Wildebeest migrate through the Serengeti to find greener pastures. Also on the river is where some unfortunate animals lose their lives whilst crossing, either by drowning or by the Crocodiles lurking in the dirty water. Vultures have a feast here picking at all the remains washed up. We stopped on a bridge and my god the smell was bad, very bad.

The evening game drive was going to be our last, and wow what a good one. We were lucky to spot a Black Rhinoceros, not as rare as the white but there’s only a few in Kenya. Black Rhino are very territorial so we had to keep our distance. These solitary animals are poached for their horns also.

We also spotted quite a few Cheetahs, it was a shame we didn’t see them in action as these cats can reach speeds of up to 70 mph. We were lucky enough to see a mother Cheetah with her little cubs.

Hot air ballooning

We embarked on a hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara. On arrival at 6am we watched while the balloon got filled with hot air and slowly rose from the ground. The basket was on it’s was lying on it’s side and you climb in. Slowly the balloon lifted us to an upright position.

The views were spectacular once you were up in the sky. Watching the sun rising over the horizon was like a dream come true. Far down below hundreds of Wildebeest were travelling in single file. Silently cruising above the plains it was so serene and beautiful.

When we finally landed the crew had breakfast ready for us. So we all sat at a long table and ate whilst sitting in the middle of the Masai Mara. Surrounded by all the beauty and the guides with guns (just in case). This perfectly ended our amazing time on safari in beautiful Kenya.

We finished our trip off with 3 nights in Mombasa, a town on the east coast of Kenya. We stayed at Pinewood Beach resort at Diani beach.

With white sandy beaches just next to the hotel it was a lovely relaxing time. We went on a snorkelling excursion in the warm Indian ocean, and ate dinner in the restaurant on the beach. Mainly just unwinding from a pretty full on week.