A carefully paced 7-day route through Samburu, Ol Pejeta and Lake Naivasha, at the top of the market, with space, privacy and considered detail throughout. 6 nights on safari, priced on request.
Samburu - Ol Pejeta - Lake Naivasha - Maasai Mara
About this safari
The route opens in Samburu — northern dry country and the Samburu Special Five — and works through 3 further destinations over 7 days. It stays within Kenya; the final proposal will confirm transfer times and the balance between travel and game viewing. Accommodation is at the luxury standard: premium camps and lodges where the accommodation is part of the experience. At this level the camps are as much a reason to travel as the wildlife: limited suites, exceptional food, private decks and guiding of a standard that changes what you see. Like every safari in this catalogue, it is priced on request rather than sold at a published rate, because park fees, permits, group size and contracted accommodation all change the figure.
Day by day
Written out in full before you book, so you can see exactly how the days are paced and where each night is spent.
Day 1
This planning outline starts in Nairobi and continues towards the first destination; the collection point, time and transport are confirmed in the final proposal. Today's drive takes you north of the equator into semi-arid country where Samburu pastoralists move livestock between grazing and water. The heat builds through the morning, the hills turn blue in the distance, and everything narrows towards the Ewaso Ng'iro — the river that makes life in this landscape possible at all. Everything here organises itself around the Ewaso Ng'iro. Drives follow the river through doum palm forest where leopard rest through the heat and elephant families come down to drink and dig for water in the sand. Away from the banks the country is thorn scrub and rock, where oryx and gerenuk browse and vulturine guineafowl move through in noisy flocks of startling blue. The catalogue suggests a premium camp or lodge here. The exact property, suite and services remain subject to availability and quotation.
Overnight: Samburu
Day 2
Birding in Samburu is exceptional and distinct from the south, with vulturine guineafowl, Somali bee-eater, golden-breasted starling and pygmy falcon among the dry-country specials. Your guide will stop for them as readily as for the big animals, and on a hot afternoon when the mammals have gone quiet they carry the drive. Samburu's draw is the set of dry-country species known locally as the Special Five, none of which occur in the southern parks: Grevy's zebra with its narrow stripes and rounded ears, reticulated giraffe with sharply defined chestnut markings, the long-necked gerenuk that browses standing upright on its hind legs, the beisa oryx, and the blue-legged Somali ostrich. Finding all five in a stay is a genuine and achievable ambition. A luxury stay is proposed for this night, with the final property and arrangements confirmed in writing.
Overnight: Samburu
Day 3
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, being on foot changes the pace completely. Walking with an armed ranger, the attention shifts from finding large animals at distance to reading what is immediately around you — tracks in the dust, dung, chewed stems, the alarm calls that tell you something has moved. Sightings are fewer but the detail is far richer, and approaching rhino on foot with someone who knows the individuals is not easily forgotten. The route then continues onward, today's route brings you to the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa, on high open country near Nanyuki. The altitude keeps the grass green for much of the year, Mount Kenya rises behind the conservancy, and the atmosphere is noticeably different from a national park — fewer vehicles, more flexibility, and a conservation programme you can see working. This outline assumes the catalogue's premium standard. No named camp is guaranteed until the quotation confirms it.
Overnight: Ol Pejeta
Day 4
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, a boat trip on the lake is the reason most itineraries stop here. Cutting the engine near a hippo pod brings you closer to these animals than any vehicle can, and the birdlife along the shoreline is extraordinary — fish eagle calling from the dead trees, pelican working the shallows in line, cormorant colonies packed onto drowned branches, and herons stalking the papyrus edge. Boat trips are normally an optional extra rather than an automatic inclusion. This travel day carries the route onward, the road south from Nakuru runs along the Rift Valley floor with the escarpment rising on both sides, and Naivasha announces itself as a band of green — fever tree forest and flower farms crowding down to the only freshwater lake in the chain. The change from soda lake to fresh water is immediately visible in the vegetation and in the birds working the papyrus fringe. The suggested standard is luxury. Citrus will identify the available property and contracted services before confirmation.
Overnight: Lake Naivasha
Day 5
The next leg links the two destinations, the approach takes you across the floor of the Great Rift Valley and up onto the grasslands that stretch south to the Tanzanian border. It is a long drive, broken for lunch and leg-stretching, and it does the useful work of showing you how the land changes — from dense highland cultivation to the open, lightly wooded country where the great herds can move freely. The rhythm of a Mara day follows the animals rather than the clock. Dawn is the most productive window, when cats are still active and the light is low enough for photography. Later the plains settle into the heat and the emphasis shifts to elephant, buffalo and the birdlife along the water. By late afternoon the predators stir again, and the last hour before the gate closes is often the best of the day. The catalogue suggests a premium camp or lodge here. The exact property, suite and services remain subject to availability and quotation.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 6
Today is given over to the reserve, and how it unfolds depends on what your guide finds. Radio traffic between vehicles helps, but the best mornings often come from reading tracks and working a hunch. Lion are the most reliably seen of the big cats here; cheetah favour the open ground where they can use speed; and leopard, though present in good numbers along the watercourses, still ask for patience and a bit of luck. The Mara's density is what makes it remarkable — sightings come quickly, and the day tends to build rather than drag. Expect long stretches of plains game: zebra, topi, Thomson's gazelle, eland and Maasai giraffe, with buffalo herds grazing in the bottomlands. Overhead, vultures circling low is always worth following, and the sudden stillness of a grazing herd usually means a predator is somewhere in the grass. A luxury stay is proposed for this night, with the final property and arrangements confirmed in writing.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 7
Citrus will time the last day around the agreed end point and onward arrangements. The reserve gives up its last sightings on the way to the gate, and the drive out through the grassland is a slow, unhurried end to the time here. Giraffe browse along the track, zebra drift across ahead of the vehicle, and the plains look much as they did on the first morning — except that you now know what is living out in them. The planning route returns to Nairobi; the final drop-off and timing will be agreed around the confirmed onward arrangements.
Safari ends
Where you stay
Accommodation below is the suggested standard for this package, taken from the Citrus catalogue. Where an entry describes a standard rather than a named property, we confirm the exact camp or lodge with your quotation. Named properties are suggestions and are substituted with comparable alternatives if they are unavailable for your dates.
Source catalogue listing
Elephant Bedroom/Sasaab + Ol Pejeta Bush Camp + Loldia House + Bateleur/Cottar's
This is reproduced exactly from the catalogue. The written quotation will allocate nights and confirm each available property before booking.
These are planning examples, not confirmed inclusions for this package. Your written quotation will confirm exactly what is included.
The quotation will identify every separate cost before you confirm.
Where this safari goes
Kenya
Northern dry country and the Samburu Special Five
ExploreKenya
East Africa's largest black rhino sanctuary, under Mount Kenya
ExploreKenya
Freshwater, hippo pods and the Rift Valley's gentlest day
ExploreKenya
Big cats, open plains and the northern stage of the Great Migration
ExploreBefore you ask
The catalogue sets the route and travel standard, but it does not publish a fixed price or a contracted inclusion list. Citrus will prepare a written quotation for your dates, party and rooming, showing the exact transfers, activities, accommodation, meals, fees and permits before you confirm.
No. It is suggested accommodation from the source catalogue. Availability and any proposed alternative are confirmed in the written quotation before a booking is made.
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Tell us your dates and who is travelling, and we will come back with availability, honest advice on timing and a written quotation for this route.