Elephants and Dhow Sails

Amboseli gives you the shot everyone wants and rarely gets: a hundred-year-old bull crossing a swamp with Kilimanjaro clean behind him. You wait for it at six in the morning, in February. Then the Chyulus, where you ride horses across lava fields and sleep on a rooftop bed with the mountain still there. Lake Nakuru delivers rhino and flamingo in one frame. Finally Lamu, where the streets take donkeys not cars, and a lateen sail catches the channel wind at five o'clock.

Best months

June to October and January to February. Amboseli's Kilimanjaro views are clearest in the dry months, when dust settles at dawn and dusk. Tsavo and the Chyulus dry out from June. The Lamu archipelago is at its best from December to March and again July to October, avoiding the long rains of April and May.

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Amboseli National Park

Day by day.

• Day 1 Nairobi

  Arrival and Karen

  Jomo Kenyatta arrival and transfer to Hemingways Nairobi. Afternoon at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust orphan nursery, booked in advance. Guide briefing and dinner in Karen.

• Day 2 Amboseli

  Kilimanjaro through the dust

  Safarilink Wilson to Amboseli, 40 minutes. Transfer to Angama Amboseli in the 5,700-acre Kimana Sanctuary. Afternoon drive for the Amboseli super-tuskers, among the last big-ivory bulls in Africa.

• Day 3 Amboseli

  Dawn on Enkongo Narok swamp

  Pre-dawn start for the classic elephant and mountain composition, best in the first forty minutes of light. Afternoon with researchers who have tracked these elephant families since 1972.

• Day 4 Amboseli

  Kimana corridor and Maasai country

  Morning in the Kimana wildlife corridor linking Amboseli to Tsavo and the Chyulus. Afternoon walking safari with Maasai guides, permitted in the sanctuary but not the national park. Sundowner at the lookout.

• Day 5 Chyulu Hills

  Lava fields and rooftop beds

  Two-hour drive east to ol Donyo Lodge on 275,000 acres of Maasai-owned Mbirikani. Afternoon horseback ride across the lava. Overnight on a rooftop star bed with Kilimanjaro on the horizon.

• Day 6 Chyulu Hills

  Photographic hide at the waterhole

  Morning in the underground photographic hide at eye level with drinking elephant. Afternoon mountain biking on the Chyulu ridge or a guided walk into the cloud forest at 2,100 metres.

• Day 7 Tsavo West

  Mzima Springs and the Shetani flow

  Drive 90 minutes into Tsavo West to Finch Hattons. Afternoon at Mzima Springs, 250 million litres a day filtered through lava, with an underwater hippo viewing chamber.

• Day 8 Tsavo West

  Red elephants and lava caves

  Morning at the Shetani lava flow and Chaimu crater. Tsavo's elephants dust themselves red in the local soil. Afternoon at the Ngulia rhino sanctuary, a fenced black rhino stronghold.

• Day 9 Lake Nakuru

  Flamingo, rhino, Rothschild's giraffe

  Light aircraft Tsavo to Nakuru via Wilson, roughly two hours in total. Afternoon drive for white and black rhino, Rothschild's giraffe and the alkaline lake's flamingo flocks.

• Day 10 Lamu

  Dhow country and stone houses

  Fly Nakuru to Wilson, connect Safarilink to Manda Island, roughly 100 minutes. Boat transfer to The Majlis on Manda. Afternoon swim and a sunset dhow sail through the Lamu channel.

• Day 11 Lamu

  Donkeys, doors and Swahili stone

  Morning boat to Lamu Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site with no cars. Carved Swahili doors, the Lamu Fort and the museum. Afternoon at Shela beach, twelve kilometres of empty sand.

• Day 12 Departure

  Fly the coast back to Nairobi

  Morning at leisure, then boat to Manda airstrip and Safarilink to Wilson Airport, roughly 100 minutes. Cross-town transfer to Jomo Kenyatta for international departures.

What the price actually covers.

From USD 17,410 per person sharing. Permits, park fees and charter legs are inside that number, not added at the end. International flights and visas are not.

• Amboseli, Tsavo West and Lake Nakuru KWS conservation fees

• Kimana Sanctuary and Mbirikani Group Ranch conservancy fees

• Horseback riding, mountain biking and the ol Donyo photographic hide

• Safarilink and charter flights on all four internal legs

• Lamu dhow charter, Old Town guiding and Manda boat transfers