A sample fly-in outline you can reshape: choose the regions, camps and length of stay.
Pick the regions, the camps and the pace, and we link them by light aircraft. This sample eight-day outline pairs Samburu's dry-country wildlife with the Maasai Mara's big cats, and can be swapped for Amboseli, Laikipia, Lamu or Tanzania's Serengeti.
You are met at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by your Dawn Safaris representative and transferred to your hotel. Your guide gives a short briefing on the days ahead and answers any last-minute questions.
Take a scheduled light-aircraft flight from Wilson Airport to the Samburu airstrip (about 45 to 60 minutes), where your guide meets you. You arrive at your lodge on the Ewaso Ng'iro River for lunch. An afternoon game drive looks for the northern specials: reticulated giraffe, Grevy's zebra, Somali ostrich, gerenuk and Beisa oryx, plus elephants and crocodiles on the river.
Search the riverbanks and dry bush for Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk and Beisa oryx. This is also leopard and lion country, with elephants coming to the river in the heat of the day.
Take a light-aircraft flight to Maasai Mara (about 1 to 1.5 hours; routing via Nairobi or Arusha may apply), where your guide meets you. You arrive at your camp in time for lunch, then head out on your first game drive across the open plains of the Maasai Mara, home to lion, cheetah, elephant, buffalo and vast herds of zebra and wildebeest. Dinner and a night of lion calls follow.
Leave at first light with a packed breakfast to find big cats on the open plains. Enjoy a bush picnic lunch near the hippo pools, then spend the afternoon tracking lion, cheetah, elephant and buffalo before returning at dusk.
Drive toward the Mara River, where between July and October wildebeest herds gather to cross. Outside the migration season the banks are excellent for hippo, crocodile and elephant, and the surrounding plains for lion and cheetah.
After an early game drive and breakfast, you fly back to Wilson Airport in Nairobi (about 45 to 60 minutes). You are met and transferred to the airport for your onward flight, or to your hotel.
