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This rugged 1,800-km expedition is run in land cruiser or expedition trucks. You will traverse along some of Africa’s worst roads; see beautiful mountain forest surrounded o¬n all sides by hot dusty deserts, eventually arriving at our camp on the shores of the Jade Sea (Lake Turkana). Genesis Of Adventure has been offering this as our best selling safari for over years especially for those true explorers and travellers who want to get off the tourist beaten track and for it.
Destination: | Lake Turkana |
Departure: | Yes Required |
Departure Time: | 0730hrs |
Return Time: | English & Spanish |
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See detailed Safari Itinerary.
Depart Nairobi in the morning heading north via the shoulder of Africa's second largest mountain, Mt Kenya to the Samburu Game Reserve. Accommodation in our semi-permanent campsite is beautifully set under a canopy of trees or we may pitch tents o¬n the edge of Uaso Nyiro (meaning Brown in Samburu) River. Cold showers are available which are amazingly refreshing in the hot, dusty climates.
The day is spent game viewing in the park,Samburu is part of a lava plain that includes a diverse landscape of thorn scrub, red dirt, dried river beds, broken volcanic rock, steep hills, and rocky outcroppings, some large enough to be called mesas. This reserve is becoming one of Kenya's most admired stops after the Mara.
The region is home to the uncommon Grevy’s zebra with huge fury ears, gerenuk antelope standing on hind legs to feed, Somali ostriches with distinct blue legs and the shy Oryx. Elephant and crocodile are guaranteed sightings, excellent bird watching with numerous varieties of weaverbirds and the martial eagle. Leopard sighting is also a special feature here.
We head north again along the Trans-African highway to Marsabit (meaning place of cold), an astonishingly cool, green and hilly oasis rising high above the dry heat of the surrounding desert lands. The local Rendille and Samburu people in their bright red outfits, beads and earrings make it a vibrant place.
After setting up camp, we visit the lodge inside the National park and as long as the roads are dry we drive to Lake Paradise and Little Lake. Here, an indigenous forest and a desert come together to create the most compelling landscape on earth. Elephants and greater kudu abound. The dense forest in the park is also home to a variety of birds.
We depart after an early breakfast through the scenic landscape of the arid north with views of picturesque hills. We arrive and camp at Kalacha, a small Gabbra settlement on the edge of the Chalbi Desert.
The Gabbra are an Eastern Cushite people related to the Somali-Rendille in their historical origins in the southern Ethiopian highlands about AD 1000. The men wear traditional shorts and a blanket-cloak and the women wear a wrap-around and head cloth. They are pastoralists, particularly attached to their camels.
After breakfast continue northwards to Sibiloi National Park, arriving in time for lunch.Check in at the KWS quest house and later proceed to the national park for game drive located on the wild and ragged shores of Lake Turkana –the cradle of mankind-Sibiloi is home to important archaeological sites including Koobi Fora Where the fossil remains have contributed more to the understanding human evolution than any other site in the continent .Dinner and overnight at Sibiloi
After breakfast head to loiyangalani town (Lake Turkana )which is the largest desert lake in the world and extends for 288 kilometres up to the Ethiopian / Kenyan border. It is surrounded by volcanic rock and desert. We arrive at our semi - permanent beach village where we have our traditional Turkana Huts; making it a perfect place to relax, protected from the scorching sun and heat characteristic of the climate of this remote area.
Today with picnic lunches we depart with a boat to Nabuyaton and Teleki volcanos 45 kms ride . Some of the lava flows from Teleki's Volcano looking north to the southern end of Lake Turkana where the Nabuyatom cone is prominent. Named after Count Teleki, an Austrian nobleman, who led the first European expedition to the region in 1888, the volcano last erupted in about 1895 - the only active volcano in the region at that time. Its basaltic lava flows reach right down to the lake shore and make the barren landscape extremely inhospitable.
The full day is spent trekking and hiking with guides, return in the evening for dinner and overnight.
The day is spent relaxing and you may visit the local lodge to swim or hire a boat to visit the surrounding area (at an extra cost). In addition, we may visit Loiyangalani and the community settled there while in the evening visiting o¬ne of the Turkana Manyattas [optional] for traditional dances at an extra cost if clients wish. An unforgettable experience under a star studded sky so close you can almost touch it.
Turkana, formerly L. Rudolf is now named after one of the tribes who live on its shores and it is in this area that Richard Leakey uncovered the three million year old fossils of ‘Homo Erectus.’ This pre historic site is now known as the “Cradle of Mankind”. The Lake is also known as the “Jade Sea” because of its remarkable blue – green colour. This is a result of algae particles, which shift with changes of the wind and light, so that the water surface shifts from blue to grey to fabulous jade. The lake is home to the largest population of Nile crocodiles in the world. If the weather permits we take a short sunset boat ride to the surrounding areas.
We journey via the Horr Valley situated between Mount Nyiro and Ol Doinye Mara viewing the breath taking scenery as we continue to climb on torturous, rocky hills to Maralal. Near Maralal is o¬ne of the most breath taking scenes in all of Kenya – the Losiolo escarpment, an endless stretch as land drops down to the Suguta valley.
Maralal is the unofficial capital of the Samburu people and has a distinctly frontier feel about it, like something out of a ‘wild west’ movie. It boasts a colourful Samburu market and a game sanctuary that lies just outside of town. Maralal is also home of the Maralal International Camel Derby that happens o¬nce a year between July and October and attracts riders and spectators from the four corners of the world.
We head south to visit Lake Baringo where we spend the night at a campsite ing amongst the grazing hippos and watch the birds. There are only two fresh water Lakes in the Rift Valley and Lake Baringo is one of them, surrounded by large arid plains it looks like an oasis in a desert. The lake is also an ornithologist’s paradise since the lake is houses over 450 species of birds including the largest of the heron species, called the goliath heron.
Birds are attracted here because it is filled up with a iety of rare fish species. Hippos and crocodiles also find the ecosystem favorable along the shores of the lake. The rock hyrax is another animal that you cannot go without seeing. Also, nearby is a spectacular hot spring which attracts large numbers of visitors annually. All meals and overnight at the campsite.
After breakfast you will have the option to enjoy the splendour of a Boat ride as you view birds and hippos that inhabit this lake after which you will continue wth your journey to Lake Nakuru arriving by midafternoon.
You will rise up to an early breakfast. Thereafter, you take an extensive game drive at Lake Nakuru National Park the whole of the morning 0700hrs to 1200hrs. After a hot lunch in a restaurant, proceed to Nairobi arriving in the evening.
What to see and experience during this unforgettable safari