Art Safari Kenya With Karen Pearson August 2014 First mix flamingo pink 19.08.14 Depart UK or home airport Day 1 20.08.14 On arrival at Nairobi, Karen and your safari guide will meet you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport early in the morning. After loading up the vehicle, you will set off to Naivasha (2-3hrs drive depending on traffic), stopping at the top of the Rift to enjoy one of the most surprising and awesome views in Africa over the Rift Valley, the Great Rift Valley View Point, with Mt. Longonot visible in the distance. You will arrive at Karuru house for lunch, your home for the next three nights. Karuru means fish eagle, a raptor you will hear and see often from the grounds soaring over Lake Naivasha. Other visitors to the grounds include a myriad of birds as well as buffalo and hippo. The immediate garden is full of flowers and exotic plants and is fenced, but please take care when you go further. After settling into your rooms (choosing which room you want, as we have the whole house), you may want to rest for the rest of the day, or go for a walk in the area to see some of the things you might like to paint. If you have the energy, your art tutor will take you out with your sketch books to find your bearings and explore colours and shapes on your first pages. The evening should give you a chance to relax into the beautiful surroundings. Every night of the safari I suggest that you bring your day s sketches to show everyone over drinks before dinner. This is an informal and fun way to look at art work, it s also an essential learning process as you look at the work of others and listen to the way we see the world around us so differently and individually. Dinner at Karuru Tuu included. All meals are included except on your last day in Nairobi.
Day 2 21.08.14 After a leisurely breakfast on the garden deck overlooking Lake Naivasha, Karen will lead a morning painting session to start the day, making the most of the morning light over the Lake. We suggest that you take it slowly and start from the lodge and its gardens and gradually work out to the farm and the lake in the afternoon. After lunch you may like to wander up to the milking area where the farm dairy herd are hand milked. The cows make surprisingly compliant subjects, and are great practice for wildlife drawing. When you stop for wildlife sketching Karen will help you with exercises to make you see and translate the animals on to paper quickly. The techniques for making blink sketches are essential for the rest of the trip and for giving you rich material for your studio on return to the UK, so we advise that you practise these with obligingly still subjects as we begin. Karuru is a stone s throw from the lake and doubtless you will enjoy being in the gardens and in the farm. There is a wealth of wildlife in the whole area, including the farm s milking herd which gives great opportunities for practising your blink sketches while they are queuing to be milked by hand. Dinner at the lodge. Karuru Tuu Day 3 22.08.14 We start very early this morning with a boat trip out on to Lake Naivasha (included). The lake is home to Africa s largest aquatic mammal (you will already have heard hippos and now you will see them close to) and if you are lucky you will also see otters, giraffe, buffalo.
Of most interest however, is the serenity of the habitat. Sometimes we are poled out through the reeds until we reach clear water. In that time, look out for the flowers and the grasses, the small frogs and the dragonflies, then the huge variety of water birds that live on the lake. Last time we saw fish eagles fighting and rare purple gallinules creeping in the reeds. Malachite, pygmy and African pied king fishers, purple herons, goliath herons, egrets, terns, pelicans bring binoculars to see the colours properly, the bird list is endless! You continue the morning with a colour workshop, finding your own language for colour and exploring ways of using it and, most importantly, finding the language with which to paint those most frustratingly colourful and active flamingos! Flamingos are a brilliant example of receding reds, so you will learn a lot by just thinking about them, even before you see them at Lake Elementaita and Lake Nakuru. This safari is a feast of colour, with each area affording a new palette, each one so very different from the colours we use at home. In the afternoon you could visit the rose tunnels on the farm, an extraordinary glimpse into modern agriculture and the global love for cut roses of every colour. If you have itchy feet there s an option to go for tea at Joy Adamson s house Elsamere, an hour s drive along the lakeshore, or to visit Crater Lake or Hell s Gate National Park (entrance fees not included). Dinner at Karuru Tuu Day 4 23.08.14 white and orange. Even if you only had a few hours here, you would be full of wonderful images. We take a slow drive this morning we encounter our first animals. At times, there can be up to two million greater and lesser flamingos feeding on the blue-green algae, which is their main food source. They filter it into their beaks as they wade on the lake's edge. Food conditions change periodically, and the number of birds fluctuates, let s hope there are plenty there for us! After an early breakfast you set off to Lake Nakuru National Park. This small park, right next to the small city of Naivasha is an ornithologist s paradise and home to almost 450 varieties of birds, as well as 56 different species of mammals, including lions, white rhino and buffaloes. Lake Nakuru National Park is one of the prettiest in Kenya, with mountains behind the yellow fever trees and a spectacular blue salt lake upon which flamingos shimmer in shades of pink,
Lake Nakuru National Park is sanctuary to huge numbers of native African animals including waterbucks, warthogs, impalas, buffalo, Rothschild giraffes, elands, endangered black rhinos, white rhinos and, occasionally, leopards. A large herd of hippos have a territory in the northern part of the lake, making for interesting game viewing. At lunchtime, you arrive at Lake Nakuru Lodge, which will provide you with a home amongst the acacia trees for two nights, and then take a slow drive with your sketch books to work on fast sketches of animals and the landscape of the stunning lake and its surrounding grasslands. Please note that there is a curfew in Kenya s parks, and that your safari guide can be fined if they bring you back after dark. Knowing how to make the most of the time available, your guide will know exactly what time the sun sets. You return in time for a swim or a shower and then enjoy dinner at the lodge and perhaps an Amarula? You may like to discuss tomorrow s activities with your tutor and your guide before supper. Day 5 24.08.14 You continue your exploration of Nakuru National Park and how you can capture the breath-taking scenery and abundant wildlife in our work. You might start the day down on the lakeshore with the flamingos, especially in the early light and if there is mist hovering on the water, however, depending on the bush telegraph, your guide may persuade you to look for big cats first. After driving through the park, stopping regularly for sketches and painting, the plan is to settle in one spot after lunch so that you can spend several hours on one masterpiece after our picnic. Some magical viewpoints over the lake are up on Baboon Cliff (but watch out for
baboons). Remember to look in the trees. A slow game drive back for a restful end of afternoon and dinner at Lake Nakuru Lodge. Day 6 25.08.14 By now you should be in the swing of the early starts to catch the best light, the excitement of seeing beautiful sights and the thrill of catching them on paper and on your cameras. You will soon know how to juggle both of these (and your binoculars too). You will find that your safari guide is expert in finding the right angle and the right light for all of you, and will be happy to manoeuvre the vehicle so that you all have a chance for the perfect shot. As always in wildlife environments, your guide will know where best to take you. It is likely that you may go as far as Makalia waterfall and the lovely area of hills and woodland (home to black rhinoceros), though you may find enough closeby. Much of the euphorbia candelabra burned a few years ago, but these elegant cacti are still present and make wonderful studies. You may choose to go out for a full day drive, or to come back for lunch before a rest in camp, then a shorter afternoon drive, keeping energy reserves for tomorrow s big journey. Dinner at Lake Nakuru Lodge. Day 7 26.08.14 Today is a very long day of adventure travelling as we journey by road to the Masai Mara, taking a picnic lunch with us and arriving at Ilkeliani Camp in the late afternoon. There is a new road connecting Naivasha to Narok, so that part of the journey is relatively swift, then you will slow down as you get into the game areas. Arrive in camp in the afternoon and settle into your tents (with en suite bathrooms) and meet your Massai guard. Ilkeliani on the Talek River is a Masai camp supporting the local Masai people, so each tent has a red-cloaked Masai guard at night and by day there are plenty of Moran about to chat and banter with (some of them also love to pose for portraits). It s a friendly and professional camp, with delicious food. The Masai Mara National Reserve (also known as Masai Mara or the Mara) is still within the Great Rift Valley and is in the southern part of Kenya, it is roughly 275 km from Nakuru. The savannah grasslands of the Mara is home to the richest concentration of wildlife, including the "Big Five" (elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos, and buffalo), zebras, antelope, gnus, Oribis, hyenas, giraffes, warthogs, gazelles, hartebeests, hippos, crocodiles and others. The park has the largest concentration of African lions, including the black-maned lion. Birdlife is as plentiful as wildlife at the Masai Mara, which boasts over 400 different birds species. Lunch en route and dinner at Ilkeliani Camp.
Day 8 27.08.14 lunches in camp then work up sketches and paintings in the comfort of camp, so you can decide this between you. You will go out into the Mara twice a day in open topped safari vehicles. Return to camp to relax and enjoy a hot shower to rinse off the red Mara dust before dinner in camp. Carrying sketchbooks and painting gear in our vehicle, you set off out into the Masai Mara. As always relying on your guides to show us the best spots for chances of the best animal sightings. Stopping for regular sketches you will collect many pages of visual information to tell you about the environment. Our hosts will plan your meals with your guide: they may suggest that you take a picnic brunch with you while in the Mara so that you can choose to paint straight after eating, however it s also lovely to have delicious breakfasts and Day 9 28.08.14 Driving out early morning you set off for the river, hoping to find a spot where the migration is crossing the Mara River or indeed the Talek River. The speed and adrenaline of the sights you see on game drives here will be recorded in fast sketches, both in colour and monotone. Here the blink sketches will come into their own, and your fast colour choices, as you take down as much as you can in a helter-skelter of lines and wash. You may stay out in the Mara all day, taking lunch with you and spending the early afternoon out in the bush, returning in the afternoon so that you can have some time to yourselves before dinner. Day 10 29.08.14 Setting off early, you drive out towards where perhaps again the migration is crossing the river, following your guide s expert advice. As ever there are no guarantees with wildlife, so you must expect the unexpected and hope to be rewarded with Africa s usual magic. The rest of the day may depend on what you see, however, we suggest that you return to camp at midday so that you can spend the afternoon reviewing your experiences and artwork. Dinner in camp.
Day 11 30.08.14 The Mara will have filled you full of wonderful dreams. You can enjoy a late morning this morning. Return to Nairobi by road, with picnic lunch, trying not to stop for too long in the curio shops so as to arrive in the capital before the worst of the traffic. Please ask if you would prefer to fly as we can arrange air transfers (at extra cost). Dinner and overnight Twiga Hill Lodge HB. Day 12 31.08.14 After breakfast, there is a full day for excursions and shopping within the Karen area in a safari mini bus; please note that it s a tight schedule so that you see some of the best of Nairobi. I suggest you go straight to David Sheldrick s Elephant orphanage and then on to Karen Blixen s House and the Giraffe Centre (optional) before lunch at the Utamaduni Craft Centre then returning to your hotel for the final pack, showers and a brief rest in the afternoon. There are other places to add in if you have time. Please note entry fees, lunch and dinner are not included today. You may choose to have dinner at the airport after check-in or in a restaurant before you leave the city, or you may have adopted an elephant and choose to return to put it to bed. We have booked day rooms at Twiga Hill Lodge for freshening up before transfer to the airport for your departure flight. Overnight flight to London. This is your holiday, so please feel free to have some input. Extra nights are no problem to organise. If you have a particular wish to do something we haven t mentioned, please let us know.
Flights: We advise flying 19.08.14 on Kenyan Airways, KQ101 from LHR 20:00 Nairobi 06:30 + 1 Returning 31.08.14 on Kenyan Airways KQ102 from Nairobi at 23:45 arriving LHR at 06:45+1 We can accommodate different arrival and departure times/dates by prior arrangement. Guests wishing to save on travel time by flying to and/or from the Mara will need to pay for their flight and the airstrip transfers separately.