About This Experience
Explore the central highlands, Rift Valley lakes and the vast savannahs of the Masai Mara on jeep, boat, bicycle and foot. For 5 active days immerse yourself in the wonders of our beautiful wildlife parks.
Ol Pejeta Wildlife Sanctuary is special. Nowhere else in Kenya can you see chimpanzees in their native habitat. This reserve also harbors the largest number of black rhinos in East Africa in specially protected game corridors. But you’ll also find all the Big Five here – at least six prides of lions populate the sanctuary, with healthy numbers of leopards and cheetahs as well.
From the central highlands of Kenya, we’ll journey through the Rift Valley to Lake Naivasha for several unusual safaris. We’ll sail across the lake looking for hippos, pelicans, kingfishers and more. Nearby Crescent Island Game Sanctuary gives us an opportunity to stretch our legs on a guided walking safari viewing small game.
Detailed Description
Five days and 120 hours is the time it takes to travel from Nairobi's central highlands, through the Rift Valley's lake chain, to the Masai Mara's vast southern savannah — covering on foot, bicycle, boat, and jeep what would take fragmented single-day trips months to replicate. Natural World Kenya Safaris prices this private circuit at KES 371,520 for five active days with the kind of itinerary geography that makes real sense, each location following logically from the previous one.
Day one takes you north from Nairobi to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, where the terrain is ranching plateau at 1,800 metres and the wildlife is remarkably dense for an unfenced private reserve. Ol Pejeta's black rhino population is the largest in East Africa; its lion prides number at least six. The chimpanzee sanctuary — Kenya's only one — adds a primate dimension found nowhere else in the country's safari circuit. And the northern white rhino enclosure is a necessary stop: three individuals remain on Earth, all of them here, all under 24-hour armed protection. The weight of that number becomes real when you're standing a few metres away. You spend the first night inside the conservancy.
Day two moves you south and west through the Rift Valley to Lake Naivasha. The descent from the escarpment reveals the full geological scale of the rift — the valley floor stretches to distant walls of rock, and the elevation change makes the air noticeably warmer as you drop. A boat safari on the lake's surface navigates the hippo-occupied shallows and the reed margins where kingfishers and fish eagles work the edge. Crescent Island allows walking without predator concern — giraffes, zebras, and wildebeest share the footpaths at a pace that feels companionable.
Day three introduces Hell's Gate National Park, where bicycles carry you through volcanic gorge landscapes that feel geologically distinct from everything else on the circuit. The geothermal steam vents and carved rock walls of the gorge make for active, ground-level exploration — moving at cycling speed among giraffe and zebra has a different quality than anything achievable from a vehicle seat. From Hell's Gate, the journey continues toward the Masai Mara for days four and five, where the scale changes completely. The Mara's open plains extend to every horizon, the big cat population is among the highest density in Africa, and the Great Migration — present in full between July and October but with substantial resident herds year-round — gives the landscape its defining rhythm.
Accommodation, guiding, vehicle hire, and most meals are included in the price. Soft drinks, items of a personal nature, and gratuities are additional. Travelling with Natural World Kenya Safaris in a private jeep means the pace adapts to what you're actually seeing rather than a group schedule. Families with older children, serious wildlife photographers, and travellers who want to understand Kenya's ecology across multiple ecosystems rather than a single location will each get something distinct and irreplaceable from this itinerary.
