kenya & tanzania: the plains and a private island

By light aircraft, apart from one border morning and the crossing by sea.

Nairobi to the conservancy is a short hop out of Wilson Airport, a little over an hour. The Serengeti leg is the slow one, because the two parks share no immigration post: the safari airlines put down at Migori or Tarime so passports can be stamped, and the through service is published for part of the year only, so give that day to travelling.

For the island you fly to Dar es Salaam and join the island service, which calls at Mafia and reaches Songo Songo in around fifty minutes of flying. Then a short drive to the shore, a boat of about forty-five minutes, and you step off into the shallows.

Luggage is capped at 15 kilograms a head throughout, soft bags only, and anything taken into the cabin counts towards it.

No, because the two sit under different rules.

Naboisho is community-owned Maasai land, and a private conservancy may allow what the neighbouring reserve does not: walking on foot with armed Maasai guides, and spotlit drives after dark. In the Serengeti you are inside a national park, where walking is licensed much more tightly.

The camp's walks are led by its most experienced guides, all of whom have had rifle training, and are accompanied by a Serengeti park ranger, with outings from a couple of hours to a full day.

Neither is a route march. Expect a few kilometres at a slow pace, given over to tracks, birds and the detail a vehicle simply goes past, with big game watched at a distance rather than approached.

Minimum ages are set camp by camp, so tell us everyone's age and we will confirm who may walk.

In one of two places, and the month decides which.

The camp stands on the southern plains from about December to April, calving country, and in the north near the Mara River from about June to October, which is when the herds are up there.

Our route's days give it as Nabi Hill in the south from December to March and at Kogatende in the north between July and October, so a May departure falls between the two and we would place the Serengeti nights elsewhere.

If a river crossing is the hope, three nights is a narrow window. The season runs from late July into October and is heaviest in August and September. No success rate exists to quote.

Wildebeest gather at the water and then do as they please: some mornings they are across in ten minutes, some days they never go at all.

Dolphins on many days, and whales if the timing falls right.

Spinner and bottlenose dolphins are around the island through the year, close enough that guests sometimes swim beside them, which is what the lagoon sightings on this page refer to.

Humpbacks are the seasonal visitor, a marine safari worth going out for. The humpback breeding ground along the coast to the south sees whales between July and November, with the most activity from July to September, so a mid-year trip gives the better chance.

Underwater the reef is the draw, snorkelled straight off the beach or reached by boat for the quieter outer sites, and because a sandbank runs seaward you can swim whatever the tide is doing.

July to September is the one stretch our own pages rate highly at every stop: the Mara and the Serengeti dry, the herds in the north, and the island in its cooler half, June to October. October holds up well inland and is a little quieter.

January and February are the other pairing worth weighing, both strong in the Mara, with February the one our Serengeti page picks out for the calving, and the island hot by then.

March, April and May are the stretch to leave alone: the long rains soak the inland legs, and the island lodge closes for them too, from about the middle of March until May.

December greens the plains, brings migrant birds and newborn animals, thins the vehicles and softens the rates, and scatters the wildebeest, which is the trade. November, like May, falls between the camp's two positions, so those nights would go elsewhere.

Most of it moves, and three things hold.

The island lodge shuts for the long rains, giving the months as mid March to May rather than exact days, so that stretch is closed to this route rather than adjustable and we confirm the reopening date before holding anything.

The Serengeti camp only stands where the wildebeest are, so the middle of the trip follows the herds rather than your diary. The island is served by one flight a day by way of Mafia, which sets the arrival and departure days at that end.

Inside those limits the six island nights are the easiest to trade, and keeping four gives two back to the Serengeti if wildlife is the real point. The two Nairobi nights can go altogether if you land early enough to fly straight on, though the house there is taken whole, so its dates are worth settling first.