DAY 1 | Arrive

Arrive into Jomo Kenyatta Airport, Nairobi, where your Eco-resorts representative meets you. Take the 20-minute drive to the Stanley Hotel. This is one of the original hotels in the city and has recently been refurbished. Centrally located and with friendly staff, the Stanley is famous for the Thorn Tree Caf�, where settlers and travelers left messages for friends pinned to the shade providing Acacia tree. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 2 | Meet with the leaders of the Women's Movement

Today you’ll spend the morning with some of the movers and shakers of the Women’s Movement in Kenya. Traditionally, women in African culture are the economic mainstay of families and villages. They farm, sell their produce, raise families and care for the elderly. Yet they have little or no voice in village meetings or national politics. You’ll start with a introductory talk by your Eco-resorts hostess, Melinda Rees, who will give an overview of the areas, peoples and communities you will meet during your trip. Lunch will be in the company of Dr. Shirley Strum. Dr. Strum is an American who first came to Kenya to study baboons. She gives a fascinating account of her time as a female researcher in the bush, her relationship with the animals and her time with the local villagers whose farms were raided by the baboons she studied. You will also have the chance to discuss female circumcision rituals and meet directly with some of the women involved in helping prevent female circumcision. In the afternoon you’ll head to the National Museum to visit the Tribal Culture exhibits. These fascinating artifacts document the different tribes of Kenya; the stunning paintings by Joy Adamson (of “Born Free” fame) show the beauty of the Kenyan people. This being Africa, we will not forget the wildlife of course! You’ll also enjoy a gentle stroll around the Kenya Wildlife Nature Walk, watching lion, leopard, cheetah, antelope and other animals before heading back to the hotel for your dinner and overnight.

DAY 3 | Aberdare Country Club & Overnight Game Viewing

Leave Nairobi today for a two-hour drive to the Aberdare Country Club. You’ll enjoy lunch at the Club and then will drive into the nearby village of Nyeri to meet with a small, local women’s self help group. You’ll have the chance to talk with the women involved and learn about their traditions and culture. After your meetings, you will transfer to the Aberdare National Park to the Ark Lodge for superb overnight game viewing. Enjoy dinner and overnight game viewing at the Ark. The Aberdare Mountain ranges soar to peaks of 13,000 feet and dip into deep, V shaped valleys with streams and rivers cascading over spectacular waterfalls, including Kenya’s longest fall of approximately 1,000 feet! Located in the heart of the Kikuyu tribe highlands area, in Central Kenya, traditional folklore states that the Aberdare Mountains are one of the homes of Ngai, God. To the east of the ranges are the fertile farming lands of the Kikuyu tribe, which were settled by the colonists in the early decades of the twentieth century. The area between the Aberdares and Mount Kenya are part of what became known as the European highlands. To the west, the range falls steeply away into the Rift Valley and offer superb views of Lake Naivasha and the distant Mau Escarpment. There are three main ecosystems within the Aberdare Mountains: the rain forest, which gives way to dense bamboo forests, which itself gives way to moorland as the altitude rises. The forest is home to a multitude of elephant, buffalo, giant forest hog and the endangered black rhino. The Aberdares are also an excellent area for spotting the elusive leopard and occasional sightings have been made of the golden cat. Black and white colobus and sykes monkeys are easily seen, as are waterbuck, reedbuck, duikers, serval cats and bushbuck. Melanistic cats appear to be quite common in the high altitudes of the Aberdares and black serval cats are spotted fairly often. The best viewing in the forest areas is in the Salient area of the park, where both Treetops and The Ark lodges provide superb nighttime viewing in this area of gentler slopes and slightly less dense forest.

DAY 4 | Meru

Leaving behind the mountains and fertile valleys of the Kikuyu Highlands, today you drive around Mount Kenya to the arid, scrubby area of Meru. Surprisingly rich in wildlife, the Meru area is where you will be introduced to the conflict between animals and humans. The elephant in particular raid the small, subsistence farms of this area. In many cases, the women you’ll meet are now raising their families alone as their husbands have been killed trying to chase elephant away from their farm. These women have developed new ideas however and have built a solar powered electric fence to keep the elephant at bay. Women who are running small farms to feed their families have funded over 80% of this fence. This simple, cost effective barrier has enabled many of the women in this area to survive without needing to destroy the wildlife. Later you’ll head into the Meru National Park itself to spot the wildlife and enjoy a comfortable night at the Leopard Rock Lodge in the Park. Dinner and overnight at the lodge. The Meru National Park first became famous as the home of Elsa, the lioness of Born Free fame. Located to the northeast of Mount Kenya, Meru is an arid area mostly covered with thorny bushes and wooded grasslands. Rocky outcrops spring out of the ground, forming well used lookout points for the abundant lions of the area. Along the riverbanks, dense riverine forest has sprouted, as have the ubiquitous doum palms. Heavily poached in the 1970s, Meru has made an amazing recovery in the last few years. Kenya Wildlife Service has tightened security; consequently poaching no longer occurs in the area. All the roads have been graded in the last year; the game circuits are clearly signposted and the lodges have been refurbished. Game has also returned in large numbers, with lion, leopard, cheetah, large herds of elephant, giraffe, oryx, hartebeest and gazelle easily spotted. The Lesser kudu, a rarity in Kenya, is also found in some numbers in this area. Nearly fifty elephant and many black rhino have been transported and released into the Park, where they are settling into their new homes away from the more populated Laikipia area. This was a historic event as the largest successful elephant translocation of its kind. The bird life in Meru is also spectacular, with Somali ostrich, Ground hornbills, Secretary birds, Bateleur eagles, oxpeckers, egrets, starlings, bee-eaters and starlings in profusion. The animals are unused to vehicles, as the area has not been used on the tourist circuit for many years. This makes them somewhat shy, but half the fun of a safari is in the searching! The benefit is that when you do find the animals, you are not sharing your view with many other travelers.

DAY 5 | Organic Farm run by Women

This morning you’ll visit a local, organic produce farm. Managed by women, with many female workers, this small business exports their products overseas, mainly to Japan and Europe. This project offers a wonderful insight into the possibilities for women to alter their lives. With a little guidance, this project was conceived, a proposal for sponsorship was written, the funding was provided and now the demand is greater than the supply! A wonderful success story for rural women’s development. Lunch is at the Leopard Rock Lodge and your afternoon is spent relaxing or game driving as you please. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.

DAY 6 | Town of Isiolo in the Laikipia Region

Today we head to the other side of Mount Kenya to the Laikipia region and the town of Isiolo. Here you will meet a wonderful Turkana woman who is becoming famous for her efforts to develop women’s rights and her people’s survival. Kithioka is a strong woman who states the facts and has no patience with politically correct speech. She is quite honest and states the simple facts about her people, as she sees it, which is that the area is incredibly dry and there is no food. Therefore her people will not support the protection of animals, their competitors for water and grazing, unless the wildlife can be made to support them economically. The women’s groups with which she works are examples of the successes and future challenges for the women of this dry, arid area where the nomadic male cattle herders are rarely nearby to help support the women and their children. After your meetings, it’s time to head to the game sanctuaries for your dinner and overnight stay at the Samburu Lodge in the Samburu National Park. Northern Kenya is a huge expanse of scrub desert, bisected by a few life saving rivers. A true wilderness, this area of Kenya is very sparsely populated, and game patterns have been little affected by humans. The Samburu area is part of an ancient lava plain covered with red dirt, thorn scrub, broken volcanic rock, dried riverbeds, steep hills and rocky outcroppings. Unusual for this arid area of Northern Kenya, Samburu has a permanent water supply, the Ewaso Ngiro or “brown river”. This permanent water flow provides an oasis for the many elephant, hippo, and crocodile that abound in this area. The region is also home to the rare Grevvy zebra, Somali ostrich with their distinctive blue legs, the shy Beisa Oryx and the largest African antelope, the Eland. The Samburu area is famous for its leopards. One of the most reliable areas in Kenya for spotting this beautiful but elusive cat, as well as lion and cheetah, Samburu proves very popular with the big cat researchers. The mix of wood and grassland with riverine forest and swamp is home to a wide variety of bird life as well as mammals. Buffalo Springs records over 365 bird species!

DAY 7 | Sweetwaters Game Preserve

Leaving Samburu behind, you drive to the old settler town of Nanyuki and the private game reserve of Sweetwaters. Sweetwaters and the Ol Pejeta Sanctuary hosts rhino, elephant, giraffe, numerous plains game and the big cats. It is also home to the only Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya. Arriving in time for lunch, you’ll relax at this luxurious permanent tented camp before visiting the Chimpanzee Sanctuary in the afternoon. Game drives enroute to the camp; then enjoy dinner and overnight under canvas.

DAY 8 | Great Rift Valley

Drive down into the Great Rift Valley today, home of the colonial settlers and still the area of Kenya with the largest number of white Kenyans. Staying at the Lake Naivasha Country Club, you’ll have the chance to speak with Sarah Higgins who works with the Lake Naivasha Riparian Association. Sarah will give an interesting, alternative view of women in Kenya. She will be able to give information on life in the Rift Valley with its large flower and vegetable growing co-operatives, which are suffering now from a decreasing water supply. Enjoy a boat ride to the Crescent Island Sanctuary in the afternoon and then dinner and overnight at the Lake Naivasha Country Club.

DAY 9 | Masai

After breakfast, drive into the outskirts of Nairobi and meet your next guide, Zippy Wanakuta, from the African Conservation Centre. Zippy is working with a group of Masai women who have set up a beadwork co-operative to pay for their daughters’ education. You will take the one-hour drive to the Masai village to meet the women involved with this project. Masai women are very seldom educated in a formal sense and they have virtually no rights within the village. Daughters are used by their fathers as bartering tools for cattle and goats; little consideration is given to their own needs. This small group of Masai mothers has started to change this tradition by creating beautiful beadwork dog collars, baskets and jewelry to sell in the United States, thus creating an education fund for their daughters. You will meet the children at their schoolhouse, see the workshop and visit one of the traditional Masai village homes of the women. In the afternoon, drive back to Nairobi and check-into the Stanley Hotel for the night.

DAY 10 | Masai Mara

After breakfast, transfer to the domestic airport for your flight to the Masai Mara and the permanent tented camp of Dream Camp. This lovely camp is set just on the outskirts of this famous game park and is operated with the assistance of the local Masai tribes people. Dream Camp offers good quality, comfortable accommodation with friendly staff and wonderful wildlife viewing. You’ll also have the opportunity to visit local villages and to learn more about the culture of this famous tribe. Located to the south of Nairobi, and bordering Tanzania, the Masai Mara forms part of the huge Serengeti eco-system. The Mara spreads over 1510 square kilometers of rolling plains, sudden rocky outcrops, and green winding rivers. Not only is the Mara blessed with this stunning landscape, but also its animal diversity is one of the greatest in Africa. Surrounded by the grazing lands of the Masai people, the Mara is a sanctuary for all of the Big Five animals: lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and leopard. The sweet grasses and abundant water ensure a full compliment of plains game such as the impala and Thompsons gazelle. The deep river pools provide homes for hippo and crocodiles. Each year, generally in August/September, the Mara is host to the spectacular Wildebeest Migration, one of the natural wonders of the world! Literally millions of these awkwardly shaped ungulates move across the open plains in an endless stream stretching from horizon to horizon. The movement of this vast herd is fascinating in itself, but seldom a day goes by without the added bonus of watching the predators that follow the herd. Lion, leopard, cheetah and wild dogs rely on the herd for food. Spotting one of these magnificent predators is more or less guaranteed at this time. The breath-taking beauty of the Masai Mara and its astonishing diversity of wildlife combine to ensure that the Mara is one of the most popular stops on a Kenyan safari. Enjoy a Masai Manyatta (village) visit after lunch and then game drive in the evening before returning to dinner and overnight at the camp.

DAY 11 | Exploring the Masai Mara

Spend today exploring the Masai Mara on foot and by vehicle. Keep an eye out for the big game as your guides point out local medicinal plants and trees as well as the birds and animals that you pass. Enjoy a Masai Manyatta (village) visit after lunch and then game drive in the evening before returning to dinner and overnight at the camp. Being the nomadic wanderers, in charge of the cattle and goats, it is the men who will act as your guides here as they have the experience of wandering through the bush. Contrast their information and points of view with that of the women that you’ve met; it will make an interesting experience! Dinner and overnight at the camp.

DAY 12 | Return to Nairobi

After breakfast, game drive enroute to the airstrip for your flight to Nairobi. Upon arrival you’ll be met and taken to the Stanley for a dayroom; the driver/guides and vehicles will be at your disposal for shopping in the afternoon. Later you’ll also meet John Waithaka, Ecologist and Community Liaison for African Conservation Centre, who will give you an introduction to the cultural background of Kenya as well as details of the community projects that have started with the help of non-government organizations (NGOs). The women in these group projects are now economically independent; for this reason they now have a voice and are able to ensure that village and community decisions are suited to women as well as men. Enjoy an early dinner and then transfer to the international airport for your flight home.