Kenya Education Fund Safari Special - Extraordinary Journeys

Extraordinary Journeys is thrilled to announce its new partnership with the Kenya Education Fund. Extraordinary Journeys has announced that for clients traveling Kenya (on trips that are $3500 per person or more) EJ will make a $25 per person donation to support KEF. Extraordinary Journeys will also send clients information about sponsoring individual?students for as little as $50 a year.?Sponsors are assigned to a specific student and receive updates from KEF and the student throughout their 4 years of school. For sponsors who are lucky enough to travel to Kenya on safari, KEF and Extraordinary Journeys will make sure they get the chance to meet the student they have sponsored.?Those interested in supporting KEF while on the trip of a lifetime might consider this 14-day KEF Safari Special itinerary to Meru National Park, the Laikipia Plateau and the Maasai Mara. At $7800 per person this itinerary takes advantage of some great deals from Offbeat Safaris. To top it off Extraordinary Journeys will donate $50 per person to KEF instead of the usual $25!

Read more about KEF here.

Day 1 ~ Nairobi ~ Ole Sereni

Upon your arrival in Nairobi this evening, your Extraordinary Journeys Representative will assist you at the airport and transfer you to your hotel where you will spend 1 night before starting your journey the next morning

In Nairobi, you will find a city that is lively, cosmopolitan and full of contrasts. It?s a place of smart office workers, mansions and expensive suburban shopping centers as well as overcrowded slums of people trying to struggle on as best they can. Displaying enormous vitality and buzz, Nairobi is one of Africa?s major cities and is East Africa?s hub for commerce and aid. It?s hard to imagine a city with a more fascinating variety of people. On any downtown street you can see a complete cross-section of Kenyans, plus every variety of tourist and refugees from many African countries. It?s hard to imagine that this city celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1999 and that where it now stands, only Maasai manyatas stood barely a century ago!

Ole-Sereni is taken from the Maasai name for the area meaning ?place of tranquility.? The hotel captures the essence of Nairobi, which is the only city in the world that boasts a natural game park within its precincts. The hotel offers its guests views of animals in their natural surroundings at the waterhole in the park from the restaurants, bar, swimming pool and other parts of the hotel.

Ole-Sereni Hotel offers guest 134 exquisitely furnished, air-conditioned rooms and suites spread over three floors. Guests will have the opportunity to relax and unwind at the roof top, heated swimming pool that overlooks the park, the gym and aerobics room or the sports lounge. Special therapies and treatments are available at the Massage Centre. The Sauna & Steam Facility and Unisex Salon are other places guests can visit to pamper themselves. The hotel is perfectly place between Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and the city center.

Overnight: OLE-SERENI HOTEL. ?Includes: Bed and Breakfast

Days 2 / 3 / 4 / 6 ~ Meru National Park ~ Off Beat Meru

This morning you will board a flight from Wilson Airport to Meru where your guide will be waiting at the airstrip to drive you to Offbeat Meru Camp.

Meru National Park is located in Kenya?s Eastern Province in the Nyambene Hills. The park is a thriving eco-system that is home to the? Big Five? as well as a number of other species including reticulated giraffe, oryx, gerenuk and lesser kudu, lion, cheetah, and both black and white rhino (the park now boasts over 67 rhino). Large herds of buffalo and elephant are seen regularly. Thirteen rivers flow through the area encouraging a spectacular variety of birdlife. Meru National Park was made famous by conservationists George and Joy Adamson, and the film and book Born Free, the story of Elsa the lioness.

Offbeat Meru Camp is a small, traditional safari camp with only 6 tents located on the edge of Meru National Park in the Bisanadi National Reserve. The camp overlooks the Bisanadi River and the surrounding riverine forest. With only two other lodges in the park you feel you have the park to yourself. Each of the tents is furnished with a large iron bed, its own en-suite bathroom, traditional hot bucket showers and flush toilet. There is 24 hour solar lighting in the tents, while the rest of the camp is lit by traditional ?tilly? lamps. Informal dining is hosted in the mess tent or around the campfire. A spacious living room tent has comfortable sofas, writing table and bar.

Days are tailored to suit your requirements. Activities include day and evening game drives, bush breakfasts and sundowners, evening walks with armed guards, fishing and visits to the local Boran community. After an active morning in the bush there?s no better feeling than coming back to camp and cooling off in the infinity pool and watching the wildlife as it comes to drink from the Bisanadi River.
Overnights at OFFBEAT MERU.?Includes: All meals, house wines, soft drinks and beer, laundry, game drives in open 4X4 vehicles and Laundry.

Days 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 ~ Laikipia ~ Sosian Lodge

This morning after breakfast you still drive from Meru to Sosian Lodge in the Laikipai Plateau where you will spend four nights. The drive will take approximately 6 hours, passing through villages and towns.

The eastern escarpment of the Rift Valley, known as the Laikipia Plateau, is a vast expanse of wild country covering 3000 square miles between Mt Kenya and the Rift Valley. The plateau is divided into a patchwork of enormous ranches. The ranches are actively involved in eco-tourism and conservation projects alongside local communities through the Laikipia Wildlife Forum. Wildlife moves freely throughout this immense wildlife area and with few other tourists and the freedom to leave your vehicle, Laikipia offers a unique experience.

Sosian is a 24,000 acre private ranch in the heart of Laikipia and home to a huge diversity of mammals and birds. The ranch house was built in the 1940?s by Italian artisans, and in recent years was beautifully restored to accommodate up to 14 people in the atmosphere of a private home. The 7 cottages each have their own private verandah and en-suite bathroom and the lodge has a swimming pool, tennis court, and organic vegetable garden.

During your stay indulge your adventurous side by taking part in activities including game drives, fly camping, horse and camel back safaris, birding, cattle ranching and river activities like fishing and tubing.

Overnights at SOSIAN.?Includes: All meals, house wines, soft drinks and beer, laundry, game drives in open 4X4 vehicles and Laundry.

Days 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 ~ Maasai Mara ~ Offbeat Mara Camp

Today you will take a short flight to the Maasai Mara. Upon your arrival, your guide will transfer you to Offbeat Mara where you will spend four nights.

Maasai Mara is Kenya?s most famous nature reserve, and one of the settings for the film Out of Africa. In this classic savannah grassland the animals are plentiful and the vistas breathtaking. The Mara covers 700 square miles and is part of the Serengeti ecosystem. Each year it hosts the world famous spectacle of the annual migration of up to two million wildebeest, thousands of zebra and an escort of carnivores from the Serengeti plains, following the rains and new grass. Whether or not you are in the Maasai Mara during the migration, your wildlife viewing will be spectacular, as the resident population of zebra and wildebeest will be there, along with the predators. The reserve is known for lion, cheetah, elephant, leopard, black rhino and hippo and over 500 species of birds including ostrich, lark and sunbird. The area around the reserve is home to the Maasai, a pastoral tribe whose traditional villages dot the landscape

Offbeat Mara Camp is located in the private Olare Orok Conservancy, just a few hundred yards north of the Maasai Mara Reserve boundary. Staying in Olare Orok allows you easy access to the main Mara reserve and the privacy, freedom and superb wildlife viewing experience that comes with staying in a private reserve. This includes night drives and walking safaris, activities not available in the national reserve.

The camp has 6 traditional safari tents each with an en-suite bathroom with hot bucket showers, wash basins and a flushing toilet. The tents are all furnished with large, handmade cedar beds, 24 hour solar lighting and high quality linen. Meals take place in the mess tent or around the campfire.

Overnights at OFFBEAT MARA CAMP. ?Includes: All meals, house wines, soft drinks and beer, laundry, game drives in open 4X4 vehicles and laundry.

Day 14 ~ Depart Nairobi

Today you will bid farewell to Africa for now as you fly from the Maasai Mara back to Nairobi in time for your international flight home.

Price per person: $7800

Inclusions

• Flights within Kenya as described in the itinerary.
• Superior accommodations throughout as indicated or similar.
• All meals, drinks and laundry while on safari and as indicated.
• All wildlife viewing by 4 X 4 open roof vehicle shared with other guests, driven by a highly qualified naturalist guide.
• Complimentary soft drinks and water in vehicles.
• All applicable hotel and lodge taxes.
• All game park entry fees.

• Foreign airport taxes.
• Passport and visa fees and service charges for obtaining visas.
• Excess baggage charges levied by airlines.
• Meals and beverages, other than specified.
• Gratuities to driver/guides and other conveyance attendants.
• Laundry and other items of a personal nature.
• Personal and baggage insurance.
• Cost for anything not specifically mentioned in the listing above.
• Gratuities.

Source: http://www.extraordinaryjourneys.net/blog/kenya-education-fund-safari-special/

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