kenya, rwanda & tanzania
gorillas, the mara and pemba
Eleven nights linking Rwanda's mountain gorillas, the Maasai Mara conservancies and the diving reefs of Pemba Island.
- Private Safari
- From $22,675 pp
- 2 guests
- 11 nights
trip highlights
- Game drives run in Land Cruisers into Nairobi National Park, which holds four of the Big Five and a population of black and white rhino.
- Night drives on the private land around Loldia House can turn up leopards along the fever-tree margins, with bat-eared foxes and aardvarks in the spotlight.
- Wild Hill is an exclusive-use home built into Kileleoni Hill, with a private guide and vehicle and conservancies where vehicle numbers at sightings are capped.
- A rhino sanctuary sits at the foot of the hill below Wild Hill, close enough to visit on foot.
Scroll for the full itinerary
Kenya From City Edge to Conservancy
Seven nights across three parts of Kenya, in order. It opens on the southern edge of Nairobi National Park, a working savannah ecosystem on the doorstep of the capital, where black and white rhino are a particular strength. It then drops into the Rift Valley on the shore of Lake Naivasha, farmhouse country with more than 400 recorded bird species, before rising into the northern Maasai Mara and the conservancies above it.
You travel by game-drive vehicle and boat, with the transfer into Nairobi National Park run as a drive through the park itself. Days hold game drives, lake boat safaris and night drives on private land, and conservancy driving where vehicle numbers are capped. The stays are family-built and family-run homes, taken as suites or on an exclusive-use basis, standing in for the character of each region rather than a hotel.
Daily Itinerary Breakdown
Nairobi National Park at The Emakoko
One night on the southern edge of Nairobi National Park, straight off the flight. The drive in runs through the park itself, so the transfer is already a game drive, and the park holds four of the Big Five with a healthy population of black and white rhino, watched with the city skyline standing behind the herds. You arrive on foot over a wooden footbridge above the Mbagathi River, crocodiles in the water below. The Emakoko is built into the steep valley above it, on the park boundary.
- Accommodation at The Emakoko
Lake Naivasha at Loldia House
Three nights on the north-western shore of Lake Naivasha, a light aircraft hop up the Rift. The 6,500 acres here are private, so the drives carry on after dark, when leopard move along the fever-tree margins and bat-eared fox and aardvark turn up in the spotlight, and you can walk among impala and grazing cattle rather than stay in the vehicle. Mornings go out by boat through the papyrus and the pelicans, on a lake with over 400 recorded bird species. Loldia House is a 1940s stone farmhouse on the Hopcraft family's cattle ranch above the water, and the days keep farmhouse hours, down to high tea on the lawn.
- Accommodation at Loldia House
Northern Mara Conservancies at Wild Hill
Three nights in the northern Mara conservancies, flown down from the Rift. You have a private guide and vehicle, so the days run to your hours rather than a camp's, traversing Enonkishu, Ol Chorro and Lemek. Vehicle numbers at sightings are capped across all three, which is why a leopard or a pack of wild dogs is often watched by a single car. A rhino sanctuary sits at the foot of the hill, close enough to visit on foot. Wild Hill is a five-suite house built into Kileleoni Hill at 2,100 metres, taken by one group at a time, so the whole place is yours.
- Accommodation at Wild Hill
frequently asked questions
Expect white rhino with some confidence and black rhino with rather less, because nothing wild comes with a promise.
The first chance comes on day one, because the drive in to your lodge crosses Nairobi National Park. White rhino graze out on the open plains there, which makes them the simpler find.
The park is better known as a sanctuary for black rhino, but they browse in thick bush and often stay hidden, so count one as a bonus.
The second chance is the sanctuary at the foot of the hill below Wild Hill, in the Mara conservancies, where two southern white rhino live under the watch of rangers and Kenya Wildlife Service officers.
If rhino are your main reason for coming, ask us about adding a day at Lake Nakuru National Park from Loldia House, about two hours away by road, where white rhino are particularly easy to see.
Three things, mainly:
- Drive after dark
- Leave the track
- Get out and walk
None of them is permitted inside the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The conservancies around it are private and community land, and they set their own rules for a small number of visitors.
They also limit how many vehicles may gather round an animal. Mara North, next door, publishes a rule of no more than five cars at a sighting, and Enonkishu, Ol Chorro and Lemek, the three you drive in from Wild Hill, cap numbers too, which is why a leopard here is so often watched by one vehicle.
A private guide and vehicle add to that freedom, since you can stay out all day with a picnic or come home for lunch. Tell us what you most want to do, and we will check with the house what its guide can arrange on foot and after dark.
Not reliably, and this is not the trip to choose for it.
The herds from the Serengeti are usually in the Mara from about July to October, and the river crossings take place on the Mara River, inside the national reserve and the Mara Triangle. Wild Hill stands at the other end of the ecosystem: Enonkishu, below the house, is the northernmost point of the Greater Mara.
What this corner gives you instead is resident game all year, the leopard and the occasional pack of wild dogs among it, with very few other vehicles.
If the migration matters to you, tell us, and we will add nights at a camp close to the river or move a night from elsewhere on the route. Even there a crossing is never on a timetable: herds gather, hesitate and often walk away from the bank, sometimes for days on end.
Our ratings put January, February and July to September highest for all three regions on this route.
Those months bring short grass in Nairobi National Park, easy going around Lake Naivasha and good game in the Mara conservancies. June, October, November and December are in-between months, when showers are possible and there are fewer visitors.
We would not send this trip in April or May, the long rains. March is a month we mark as challenging in the Mara, when the tracks turn muddy.
The greener months do have real upsides: prices come down, there are young animals about, the country is fresh and the air is washed clear for photographers. Birders have a particular reason to look at them, because the migrant species that help Lake Naivasha to a list of more than 400 are present from November to April.
The rhino are there all year, whichever month you choose.
By road first, then on two short flights.
The Emakoko is about 45 minutes from Nairobi's airports, and the last part of that drive is a game drive through the national park.
From Wilson Airport a scheduled light aircraft, typically a 12-seat Cessna Caravan, takes about 20 minutes to the Loldia airstrip, and the same service carries on from Naivasha to the Mara in about 45 minutes. The Naivasha flights run daily in the high season.
If no scheduled flight suits your dates, we would arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, or drive you to Loldia, which is about two hours from Nairobi.
These aircraft carry 15 kilograms of luggage a person, a figure that counts your hand luggage, and all of it must be in soft bags. Published times can move by up to 40 minutes on the day, and an aircraft may call at other airstrips on the way.
Yes, and the last stop is the reason.
Wild Hill is taken by one party at a time and comes with its own team: a host, a chef, housekeepers, a wellness specialist and a private guide with vehicles. Meal times, drive times and the pace of each day are set by your family, not by other guests.
The house also offers horse riding and electric bikes alongside the game drives and the walk down to the rhino sanctuary.
Loldia House welcomes children of all ages, and its days suit them:
- Boat trips among the hippos
- Gentle guided walks inside the fenced part of the farm
- Night drives that set out after dinner and last about an hour
The first two stops are taken by the room and are shared with other guests. Tell us the children's ages when you enquire and we will check every activity against them.
Ed Charles, BBC Producer
Fitzroy are true specialists in accessing the wilderness. They know where to go and importantly, when to go there. Highly recommended.
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Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
Every journey starts with a conversation. We favour a direct, personal approach: understanding your vision before anything else.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape a journey that is both thoughtfully considered and expertly delivered.
Get in touch to start planning yours.