Speedbird Travel & Safaris

Day 1

Arrive in Nairobi, transfer to a city hotel for overnight.

Day 2

Start the Photography Safari by flying midmorning, with our camera gear and laptops, to the Masai Mara Game Reserve. The remainder of our luggage is transported by road and arrives just after lunch. After checking into our luxurious tented lodge, lunch and orientation, we have our first late afternoon game drive.

Days 3-7

From our wonderfully situated luxury lodge we are in the heart of the entire Masai Mara Reserve’s wildlife action. Our lodge is located in the reserve’s low-density visitation area (we pay a higher daily entry fee to stay here) close to the famous zebra/wildebeest migration crossing points of the Mara River. We photograph elephants, Cape buffalo, Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelle, impala, topi, zebra, wildebeest and Coke’s hartebeest. Giraffe, eland, bushbuck, serval and the big cats-lion, cheetah and leopard-all live permanently within the reserve and are usually easy to see in our area. We capture the range of light from sunrise to sunset and the Mara’s many moods.

Days 8-10

We journey overland to Nakuru National Park, migratory stopover of more than a million lesser flamingos. The park is a reserve for both black and white rhinos and we should have good opportunities for close-up photography of the whites. East Africa’s most dense leopard population dwells here, plus Rothschild’s giraffes, Defassa waterbucks, reedbucks, unwary warthogs and Cape buffalo. Sunset over a lakeshore swath of pink flamingos is a special photogenic experience not to be missed!

Days 11-13

We drive north to the Samburu and the Buffalo Springs Game Reserves where a sizable population of elephants plus Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk, Somali ostrich, impala, common waterbuck, dik-dik, vervet monkey, hyrax, baboon and oryx round out the photo subjects. The elephants exhibit a special red color at Samburu from rolling in the reddish mud of the Ewaso Ngiro River. Our impressive permanent tented camp at river’s edge is a relaxing base for our morning and afternoon game drives to a wide variety of habitats-open plains with Mount Kenya in the distance, narrow lush valleys filled with birds, and towering cliffs where baboons seek refuge at night from prowling leopards. (BLD)

Day 14

We catch a flight back to Nairobi this morning, have a dayroom at a city hotel for the rest of the day. Transfer to the airport in the evening to catch the outbound flight back home. End of Photography Safari.