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Day1 - Nairobi Arboretum
Nairobi Arboretum is an urban park with dense forest vegetation, therefore providing habitats for numerous birds, as well as primates species including the Sykes’ monkey.
Day 2 - 3 Amboseli National Park
Amboseli is famous for its large elephant populations and a good view of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in the African continent.
Apart from doing game drives and enjoying the wildlife, we also visited the elephant research camp of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, which gave us a lecture on elephant conservation in the park.
Day 4 - 5 Mount Kenya National Park
Mount Kenya is not only the highest mountain in Kenya, but also an important habitat for highland forest bird species. In Mount Kenya, we got to get off the game drive vehicle and went for hikes in the forest to look for rare birds, including the African crowned eagle.
Day 6 Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Ol pejeta is a famous conservancy that hosts the last two northern white rhinoceros in the world, and a large population of the endangered black rhinoceros. Luckily, we had the opportunities to see both. We as well went for the one and only night game drive throughout the fieldtrip and were blessed with the sightings of an aardvark, an ant-eating nocturnal mammal extremely difficult to find! We also paid a visit to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, established by Dr Jane Goodall, which provides refuges for orphaned and abused chimpanzees.
Day 7 - 8 Samburu National Park
Samburu National Park is home to the largest and endangered zebra species in Africa, the Grevy’s zebra. In order to learn more about this species and its conservation, we visited the research centre of and attended a lecture given by the Grevy’s Zebra Trust. During our game drives in the park, we encounter an uncommon sighting of a leopard mother feeding on an impala kill in the tree with her two cubs!
Lake Nakuru is designated as a Ramsar site, meaning that it is a wetland of international importance. The wetlands in the park provide habitats for a high number of water dependent bird species, including the flamingos, thus attracting lots of bird watchers coming to visit every year. Apart from birds, the park is also home to the black rhinoceros and Rothschild's giraffes, both endangered and introduce into the area for conservation.
Day 10 Lake Naivasha National Park
On our way from Lake Nakuru to Masai Nara, we stopped by Lake Naivasha and went for a boat tour. Same as Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha is also a Ramsar site and important habitat for wetland birds. Being on boats had allowed us to get very close to the hippopotamuses, pelicans, and cormorants. We also had the chance to encounter the African fish eagles up close and the pied kingfisher fishing and feeding on the fishes it caught.
Day 11-12 Masai Mara National Reserve
Masai Mara is a world-renowned area forming parts of the Great Migration. Every year, millions of gazelles, blue wildebeests and zebras migrate from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the Masai Mara to follow the rain in search of greener grasses. As the park is divided into west and east by the Mara river, the animals have to cross the river to reach the other side, resulting in the well-known wildebeests crossing in documentaries. We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to see the crossing twice, as well as lions, cheetahs, hyenas, black rhinoceros and servals, an elusive medium sized cat species.
