Gate 1 Travel Blog

As you awake in your lodge, the African sun sets the sky ablaze with the promise of another spectacular day. You rouse yourself with coffee and a bite, then join your fellow safari-goers for the day’s first adventure: a foray into the dew-flecked morning in search of big cats, hyenas and other astonishing wildlife fresh off their nocturnal hunt. You’ve learned these past few days that your driver-guides are miraculous trackers. They know where animals nap with their full bellies and where they retreat from the heat of the coming sunshine.

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But it’s not only the creatures that inspire you to new heights. This primitive, sweeping landscape – vast plains dotted with shrub bush, acacia trees and cloud shadows as far as you can see – stirs your soul and awakens your spirit in ways you never dreamed possible. This is Earth’s most dramatic stage, where predator and prey play out a constant dance of survival and the balance of nature is at its most harrowing … and its most beautiful.

After breakfast at the lodge, you venture into the wilds for your first exploration. A new surprise unfolds at every turn: a leopard getting some shut eye in a tree, a towering group of giraffes, a pod of hippos soaking in the current of a lake. Then there are the elephants. Gigantic and graceful, imposing and somehow perceptive.

After lunch, you lay low back at camp to let the heat of mid-day pass. Then it’s out into the bush again. For more adventure. For more wonder. And for more gratitude that you’ve undertaken this epic journey in a small group so you can fully appreciate the grand and magnificent scale of Africa, unhurried and fully present.

Samburu National Reserve: A River Runs through It
Home to wildlife rarely found in other Kenya game parks, Samburu National Reserve spreads across the country’s plains and gentle northern hills for 60 square miles. Many of its animals gather at the lush banks of the park’s primary water source, the Ewaso Ng’iro River, lined with doum palm groves and riverine forests. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this waterway (pronounced U-aa-so Nyee-ro, and meaning “brown water”) to the wildlife here. Where there is water, there is food, especially in this semi-arid desert. And so a vast array of creatures is drawn to this ecosystem for survival. More than this, the river cuts through a peaceful and unspoiled haven, situated as it is far from any city or industry.

More than 350 species of bird call Samburu home, as do the spear-horned oryx, reticulated giraffe, Masai lion, Tanzanian cheetah and olive baboon. But perhaps Samburu is best known as the setting where conservationists George and Joy Adamson raised Elsa the Lioness, a story famously chronicled in their best-selling book Born Free and in the 1966 movie adaptation.

Aberdare National Park: A Mountainous Wildlife Haven
Located high in the Aberdare Mountain Range, this namesake park covers a wide variety of terrain, from its 14,000-foot peak to its 7,000-foot “lower” elevations. Beautiful valleys of moorland, bamboo and rainforest have been carved here by streams and rivers over millennia. As you arrive, you just might think you’ve stumbled upon Eden itself.

During your stay at The Ark, one of Kenya’s iconic tree lodges, you will have incredible views of a nearby watering hole from the property’s many different terraces. By day, you might spot elephant or the eastern black rhinoceros lumbering up for a drink. By night, the pool is floodlit, allowing you to glimpse the secret world of African wildlife after dark.

Lake Nakuru National Park: A Paradise for Flamingos
Like in Samburu, it’s the water that defines Lake Nakuru National Park. The shallow freshwater lake attracts all manner of birdlife, with hundreds of species recorded. The waters are highly alkaline and lure countless flamingos, one of the greatest gatherings of winged creatures on Earth. Up to one million of them might appear at certain times of year, making it hard to see the lake’s surface through a blanket of pink. Pelicans and cormorants have been known to compete with the flamingos for food.

Cheetahs, fish eagles and leopards may also be seen here, grazing on grass or prowling the shores of the lake. The park is proud to host more than 25 critically endangered eastern black rhinos and 70 southern white rhinos, a near-threatened species. It is also not unusual to spot large pythons dangling from trees in the dense woodland.

Masai Mara National Reserve: The Jewel of Kenya
We save the best-known game park in Kenya for last. Masai Mara National Reserve is home to one of nature’s great spectacles: the great wildebeest migration. This massive movement of creatures is a year-long journey that never ends as nearly 2 million wildebeest, a quarter million zebra and thousands of Thomson’s gazelles follow the cycle of grass growth in a giant circle that encompasses the Masai Mara and the Serengeti plains in neighboring Tanzania.

But wildebeest aren’t the only spectacle in this breathtaking wilderness. The Maasai people named this land “Mara” for its vast “spotted” landscape. Across a far horizon, grassy plains are dotted with patches of trees, animal herds and cloud shadows, creating an epic setting for nature’s drama. Perhaps the park’s most distinctive flora is the umbrella-like acacia tree, a symbol of Africa’s plains.

It is also in the Masai Mara that you are most likely to spot Africa’s “Big Five”: lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino, an apt way to conclude to your unforgettable safari.

Experience the thrill of Kenya’s magnificent parks during our Kenya Safari Exploration.

The unspoiled savannahs of Kenya are renowned as an untamed wilderness. Left unchecked, nature would take its course and species would thrive and falter as they may. But many animals are vulnerable to human interference such as poaching, loss of habitat due to human encroachment, deforestation and drought. These all threaten populations—and nature’s balance—leaving newborns as orphans and herds at risk. That’s where two remarkable organizations come in to play, and you’ll visit them in a small group during our Kenya Safari Exploration.

Nurturing Orphans Back into the Wild

It is not uncommon for the passionate and caring staff of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) to encounter baby elephants alone in the bush. In many cases, they have wandered from their families, victims of poaching; the little calves have been spared because they have not yet developed ivory tusks. To aid these helpless creatures, the DSWT developed the Orphans’ Project, the most successful orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world.

The adorable little elephants are brought to the Trust’s farm-like clinic, fed a steady diet, and taught skills by the staff that they will never learn from their mothers and aunts, all while being eased out of the trauma of loss. It is a remarkable thing to witness as these miniature beasts bond with staff, following them wherever they go.

Since its founding, DSWT has successfully reared many dozens of elephants and reintegrated them into the wild. In fact, many wild-born calves are reared in the wild by elephants that were nurtured back to health at the clinic, a hopeful note that the work they do has fostered entire generations.

Elephants are not the only focus of DSWT. Black Rhinos, also prized for their tusks, are also raised at the clinic. The Trust’s efforts also include anti-poaching initiatives, protecting the natural environment, raising community awareness, animal welfare and veterinary services to wild animals. Founded in 1977, it is one of the pioneering wildlife conservation organizations in East Africa.

Saving a Threatened Giraffe

Nearby, the Giraffe Centre, part of the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, has similar goals to support the preservation of the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe. It is thought that just several hundred of these majestic creatures remain in the wild, and you just might spot some during your game drives at Lake Nakuru National Park, distinguishable by their creamier-colored coat and the “white stockings” above their hooves. Curiously, the Rothschild’s is also the only species to have five ossicones on its head, the stubby antler-like horns. (Most other species only have two.)

Founded in 1979 as a breeding center, the Giraffe Centre today also serves an educational role for Kenyan youth. Their vision is to create a harmonious relationship between man and nature by raising awareness in the next generation. This is no small task considering the vast natural resources and wildlife that Kenya hosts. But all of the center’s programs are offered to schoolchildren free of charge, so we can hope that this brings greater access, and with it much success.

The focal point of the center is the giraffe feeding platform, a raised structure that lets you meet these gentle giants at their level. Inside, an auditorium offers talks to guests. And it is all charmingly decorated with artwork created by local schoolchildren – inspired by the giraffes, of course!

The small group size of our Kenya Safari Exploration lets us experience these remarkable places at their fullest. We hope you’ll visit them with us.

The Maasai people have been the center of Kenya’s rural culture for generations. When you visit Masai Mara National Park and other game reserves here, you are on their sacred land. These fascinating facts may help you put their traditions into context:

• Traditionally, Maasai warriors were fierce nomads who fought with spears, shields and orinka, or clubs that they could accurately throw from 70 paces. They arrived in Kenya from the north in the 15th century, stealing cattle from villages as they passed.
• Ancestral tribes of the Maasai called this land “Mara,” which means “spotted” in their Maa language. The word was used to describe the dark clusters of trees, scrub and cloud shadows that dot the savannah.
• A large part of Masai Mara National Park is run by the Mara Conservancy, a nonprofit formed by local Maasai tribes. Some tribe members patrol the park as rangers.
• In Maasai tradition, cattle is currency. Many villagers keep their cows and bulls inside a fence crafted from thorned acacia branches to protect their wealth from lions and other predators.
• The typical Maasai hut, or enkaj, is a circular structure handmade from a mixture of mud, cow manure, grass and sticks, all tightly packed on a frame of timber.
• It is common to meet Maasai women who have stretched their ear lobes, upon which they hang strings of ornamental beads as earrings.
• The “jumping dance,” or adumu, is part of a coming of age ceremony for young, would-be warriors. The competition is performed in a circle as one or two step into the center to jump on their toes.
• Maasai culture remains strongly patriarchal. Typically, the elder men of the tribe decide on all matters that affect their group.
• Today, local organizations work with Maasai tribal leaders so they can preserve their traditions in today’s world, while acknowledging the importance of a modern education for all children.

Uncover more secrets of the Maasai during our Kenya Safari Exploration.