classic safari Elephant Walk

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1 Elephant Walk DAY BY DAY ITINERARY classic safari Helen Woodard OVERVIEW: ELEPHANT WALK Ivory wars are raging in East Africa s ecosystems, and a baby elephant does not survive long without a mother. Our Elephant Walk Safari is Deeper Africa s effort to support the majestic creatures who have so much to teach our species about leadership... survival, and about some of the concepts that are not supposed to be applied to animals: patience, loyalty, love, and joy. [Cynthia Moss, Amboseli Elephant Research Project] Your journey will take place alongside the work of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The Sheldrick program takes in orphan elephants from across Kenya, seeking to raise, rehabilitate, and help them transition back to the wild. Visit young elephants and their caretakers in the Nairobi orphanage, meet with elephant researchers in Amboseli Park, and form bonds at Sheldrick s Ithumba compound where young elephants are re-integrated back to wild herds. This safari strives to expand human horizons of knowledge about the natural world by allowing in-depth connection with elephants. Classic Safaris with Deeper Africa It s all about the wildlife. Embark on the classic safari experience: endless wilderness, great guides, spectacular wildlife, and no civilization. We ll get you to the best locations during the right seasons. Learn the basics of animal identification, tracking, and spotting wildlife in the landscape. Accommodations are comfortable and the food is delicious. Come with us and discover the brilliance and serenity of Africa in the company of experts who can give you a closer look, a richer taste, and a deeper understanding of an astonishing landscape.

2 DAY 1 OLE SERENI NAIROBI Ole Sereni Arrive at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the bustling captial of Nairobi, Kenya. A Deeper Africa representative will be waiting for you; look for her standing outside of the baggage claim and customs area holding a sign with your name on it. She will alert your driver, who will then transport you to the Ole Sereni Hotel. The Ole Sereni is a sophisticated city hotel positioned in a prime location overlooking Nairobi National Park. Nairobi National Park is a small, but busy conservation area located on the southern side of the city. The park serves as a sanctuary for many wildlife species including rhinos, giraffes, and elephants, and is home to conservation and research projects like the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Wifi Swimming Pool Tomorrow you will spend a full day learning about the important work the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is doing to rescue endangered elephants across Kenya, but for tonight, you can relax at the hotel and enjoy its many amenities including the rooftop pool and bar.

3 DAY 2 OLE SERENI NAIROBI Your Deeper Africa driver will pick you up this morning to take you to the Sheldrick Animal Orphanage. The Sheldrick Orphanage adopts abandoned juvenile elephants who have lost their mothers mostly due to ivory poaching. Adult elephants are targeted for their tusks, which are highly valuable on the black market. Killing a parent often takes two lives, as a baby elephant does not survive long without its mother. The orphans at the center live together, play together, and learn together under the compassionate watch of their human caretakers. The caretakers are equally inspiring, serving as nursemaids, playmates, teachers, and all-around elephant whisperers. Elephants are emotionally sensitive, and this bonding with their caretakers and peers is a crucial step toward healing emotional wounds. Emotional bonds are crucial to survival in elephant society, and Sheldrick seeks to raise the elephants in states that mirror maternal care, allowing them to eventually return to the wild. Wifi Swimming Pool You ll have a front-row seat to this groundbreaking project as you watch mid-morning elephant feedings and mud baths. Elephants that you will meet during the public viewing are less than two years of age. After lunch, you will return in the afternoon for a private sponsor viewing where you will get to meet your sponsored orphan. Get up close with the curious babies, some of whom may reach to wrap their trunks around your outstretched hand. Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

4 DAY 3 TAWI LODGE AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK Depart Nairobi for the wild lands of southern Kenya in Amboseli National Park. Amboseli is small and spectacular, clustered around a swampy core that spreads into a seasonal lake. It is the prime source of water for miles around, meaning that it draws a crowd of wildlife during dry season. Over the next two days you ll meet, observe, and learn about the intelligent and sentient elephants that make Amboseli their home. Amboseli has more than just elephants however, and this afternoon you ll be able to view a variety of wildlife in the plains, acacia woodland, savannas, marshes, and swamps of the park. The swamps keep hippo here all year long and there are plenty of zebra, buffalo, and a profusion of bird life. Swimming Pool The views of Kilimanjaro are spectacular from Amboseli and Tawi Lodge. Sunrise and sunset are the best times to see the mountain, even if the peak is often shrouded in a thick shawl of clouds. Tawi Lodge is located just outside the park boundary on a 6,000 acre private conservancy. This community conservancy is run in conjunction with the African Wildlife Foundation, and it maintains harmonious development for both the wildlife and the Maasai people who live in this area. African Bush Camps Foundation Tawi Lodge

5 DAY 4 TAWI LODGE AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK Tawi Lodge You ll be a guest at the Moss Research Station today. The elephant families of Amboseli have been made famous by Cynthia Moss, author of Echo of Elephants, and her Amboseli Elephant Research Project ( AERP ). For over 40 years, Cynthia Moss and her researchers have studied more than 1,500 elephants belonging to 50 families. AERP aims to ensure the long-term conservation and welfare of Africa s elephants through scientific research, training, community outreach, and public awareness. The Moss Research Station has helped our species understand the complex social networks that exist within elephant families. Studies in Amboseli have provided unique and critical information on elephant communication at a very sophisticated level, including the revelations that elephants celebrate birth, have lifelong friendships, and mourn the death of family members. Swimming Pool The elephant population in Amboseli is one of the few that has been able to live a relatively undisturbed existence in natural conditions. This rare situation is primarily due to two factors: the presence of researchers and tourists in the park and the support of the local Maasai people. In the absence of poaching and culling, the Amboseli elephant population has been increasing slowly since the late 1970s.

6 DAY 5 ITHUMBA CAMP TSAVO EAST NATIONAL PARK Sheldrick Wildlife Trust at Tawi Lodge before departing eastward, deeper into Kenya s wilderness and Tsavo East National Park. In Tsavo, you ll be learning more about Sheldrick s reintroduction program by staying at their Ithumba compound. At Ithumba, juvenile elephants still sleep with their keepers, but adolescents have gone on to join several wild herds in the area. After you arrive at Camp, stop by and say hello to the young elephants as they return to the stockades to sleep. The accommodations here are simple, but the best part is that there are elephants close by. Tsavo East is vast and one of the leading biodiversity strongholds in the world, so you will have plenty of time to track the wide variety of animals that call it home. Wild residents include big cats, zebras, giraffes, serval cats, antelopes, oryx, klipspringers, hyenas, and many others. You can also view endemic species such as desert warthog, Hirola, and Peter s gazelles. Tsavo is also a favorite place for bird watchers with whiteheaded buffalo weavers, golden-breasted starlings, eight species of hornbills, as well as birds of prey. Tsavo has endless bush grasslands, open plains, acacia scrub, and woodlands ecosystems.

7 DAY 6 ITHUMBA CAMP TSAVO EAST NATIONAL PARK By staying at Ithumba Camp and fostering one of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust s orphaned elephants, you have the wonderful opportunity to spend time with the Ithumba orphans at the stockades, which are located a short drive from the camp. The routine of the elephants and their keepers varies from day to day, so the following times act as a guideline for guests, who are welcome to visit the orphans as often as they wish, during these times: 6am - 8am: at the stockades 11am - 1pm: at the midday mud-bath 4pm - 6pm: at the stockades When you aren t busy spending some quality time with the elephants, there are multiple sights near by camp worth exploring. The seasonal Tiva River is a mustsee sight, fringed by beautiful trees, flowing only during periods of rainfall further upstream, offering spectacular game drives when flowing since it is a focal point for all wildlife. A short drive to Ithumba s seasonal dam, Lesalau Dam, can also reveal some amazing wildlife, including great birdwatching. Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

8 DAY 7 SATAO CAMP TSAVO EAST NATIONAL PARK Wendy Stone You ll have the opportunity today to learn from the elephant keepers about their young charges and the orphans unique journey back to living wild. Each orphan returns to the wild at their own pace. Until they are ready to rejoin independent herds, the keepers remain a constant in their life feeding them a milk formula until age three, giving them mud baths, and accompanying them on forays into the bush. You ll have the opportunity to assist with feeding, observe the mud baths, and watch the elephants on their way out into the wilderness. The juvenile elephants still sleep with their keepers, so you ll also be able to see as they return to the stockades at night. Say goodbye in the late afternoon to your new elephant friends, so you can make it to Satao Camp by dark. Satao Camp is a well-appointed bush camp with delicious food, quality service, and an environmentally sustainable design.

9 DAY 8 SATAO CAMP TSAVO EAST NATIONAL PARK Spend a full day wildlife viewing in Tsavo, driving through the open bush with your guide. You can view the wild herds of elephants roaming freely throughout the national park. Satao also happens to be one of the best places to view passing elephants from the comfort of your camp. Now that you have seen into the souls of these creatures, you will be to notice the intimate interactions between elephant family members. The southern area of the park provides an opportunity to see many other species as well, particularly the unique Tsavo lion. Tsavo lions neither look like, nor behave like, their Serengeti cousins. Adult males in Tsavo often lack a mane, which would normally cause them to be shunned by females and bullied by other males. Here, this deficiency does not prevent male lions from acquiring females, defending territories, or siring offspring. Mane-less lions are in all of the resident prides in Tsavo. Without a dense blanket of hair, mane-less lions require less water to cool themselves so they can travel longer and farther from permanent water sources and encounter more prey and females. Tsavo prides are made up of single males with 4 to 10 adult females each. This differs from the smaller coalitions that exist in the Serengeti ecosystem. Mark Lerner

10 DAY 9 OLE SERENI INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT Tsavo National Park at Satao Camp. Depart with picnic lunch for Tsavo West National Park. Stop by Mzima Springs while you make your journey to the bush strip for your flight back to Nairobi. Mzima Springs are a series of four natural springs that host resident populations of hippos, crocodiles, and a variety of fish species. A Deeper Africa driver will be waiting to pick you up at Wilson Airport and transport you to Ole Sereni where you will have a day room and lunch waiting for you. In the evening, your driver will see you safely to Jomo Kenyatta Airport for your international departure. Swimming Pool Wifi Flight #1 Departs: Nairobi, Kenya Arrives: TBD DAY 10 INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT Flight #2 Depart: TBD Arrives: TBD

11 ADDITIONAL SAFARI INFORMATION IN YOUR SAFARI Full board accommodations in all lodges and tented camps All meals as specified in itinerary Game drives in private 4x4 safari Land Cruisers All park and entrance fees Experienced and professional safari naturalist guides Natural Learning Program Enrollment with Flying Doctors evacuation service All in-country transportation Bottled water available at all times Extensive pre-departure briefing and materials including health information, reading list, and map EXCLUDED IN YOUR SAFARI Gratuities Alcohol and certain beverages Laundry We plan your wildlife adventures in areas where wildlife habitats are known to exist for the season and time you are traveling. Still, animals in the areas you are viewing are not in a zoo. They run freely, and we cannot always anticipate their movements. Also, Deeper Africa uses best efforts to provide the lodging set out in this itinerary, but occasionally there are circumstances that occur in Africa that require lodging substitutions. We reserve the right to make comparable lodging substitutions whenever necessary pricing $5,699 - $8, CUSTOM PRICING & DEPARTURE DATES January 6 - March, June, October - December 15 6 guests: $6,099 USD per person 4 guests: $6,399 USD per person 2 guests: $7,699 USD per person Single supplement: $999 USD April - May 6 guests: $5,699 USD per person 4 guests: $6,199 USD per person 2 guests: $7,349 USD per person Single supplement: $999 USD July - September; December guests: $6,499 USD per person 4 guests: $6,599 USD per person 2 guests: $8,299 USD per person Single supplement: $999 USD Best Value All pricing is in US dollars. Arrivals and departures are through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. Prices do not include international airfare. Prices do include in-country bush flights. All itineraries and prices are subject to change Manhattan Circle, Suite 202 Boulder, Colorado fx classic safaris