Africa 2016
African Safari - September 2016 Welcome to the adventure of a lifetime! A private ten day African Safari to witness the greatest spectacle on earth, the Great Migration in Kenya. This safari highlights the best of what Kenya offers in the amazing Masai Mara and the iconic Amboseli regions. Prepare to be AMAZED! September 1 We will be waiting for you when your flight arrives at Nairobi International Airport, and we will head to our hotel in Nairobi. September 2 We will breakfast at the hotel and then we ll ease our way into the safari and transfer to a camp that is a short distance from Nairobi. We ll have lunch in camp and then head back to Nairobi for some local sightseeing and perhaps some shopping. The highlight of our day will be a visit to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. I ve arranged for the adoption of a baby elephant in each of your names. After most of the tourists have left, we ll be able to spend some quality time with your new baby. You ll be up close and personal with your rescued baby elephant! After I force you to leave the babies behind, we ll enjoy our first game drive en route back to camp. Our best chance to photograph the endangered Black Rhino will be during this game drive. September 3 After breakfast, we ll be picked up and taken to Nairobi Wilson airport for our flight to the next camp. Our guide will be waiting to meet us when we arrive at the airstrip. Have your cameras on hand to capture any wildlife we encounter on the way to the camp. As a private safari for my clients, we will have exclusive use of vehicles for our group. Each person will have a row for themselves so you will not have to photograph around a seat mate! Our camps are called tented camps; a tent constructed on a permanent floor and has a private en-suite bathroom with running water. The camp is small and intimate with only nine tents. The camp is on a private game reserve, which means we will be the only people in the area. We can go where the action takes us, including off-road, we can go for walks, and we can also be out after dark. All of these are huge advantages for us photographers. After lunch, we will be escorted on a walk by Masai warriors to a Masai village to get an insight into their fascinating culture and way of life. After our cultural encounter with the Masai, we will return to camp for dinner.
About Amboseli Amboseli National Park covers 150 square miles and has a mixed topography of plains, acacia woodland, rocky thorn bush, swamps, and marshes. This diversity, along with a long dry season, ensures excellent views and photography of the large concentrations of African animals living there. Amboseli offers some of the best opportunities to photograph African animals because its vegetation is sparse due to the long dry months. Amboseli National Park is famous for its elephant population; the largest in all of Africa with some 1100 living in the park. These animals have not suffered poaching, and the elephants here boast the largest tusks in Africa. We ll have a good chance for lions, hyena, and cheetah as well as many of the plain s antelopes. With a bit of luck and some open eyes, we may find some rarities like Caracal, African wild cat, Gerenuk, Lesser Kudu and Striped Hyena. There are nearly 400 species of birds in the park so be ready to add some awesome birds to your portfolio. We will have views of the iconic Mt. Kilimanjaro from the park. At 19,341 feet, Kilimanjaro is the highest free-standing mountain in the world. It s a volcano, but it s been dormant for 200 yrs, so I think we ll be safe! We ll keep our fingers crossed for clear skies to get that majestic peak in the background in your images! September 4 After an early breakfast, we head out to Amboseli National Park. We will pack a picnic lunch so don t worry we won t go hungry! After a full day of searching the park for wildlife, we ll return to camp for dinner. After our meal, we ll go on a night game drive in search of some of the nocturnal animals, such as aardvarks, Serval Cats, and Bat-eared Foxes. September 5 We ll be exploring the outskirts of Amboseli in search of the big elephants, and of course whatever else may come our way. We are on a private safari on a private reserve so we can linger and photograph much longer than a normal group safari. We ll try to see as many species as possible, but we ll stay longer on something that we want to photograph.
African Safari - September 2016 About the Masai Mara You likely know about the Mara from it s featured role in the long-running series Big Cat Diaries. It is globally famous for its exceptional population of Masai Lions, African Leopards, and Tanzanian Cheetahs. It is also renown for the annual migration of Zebra, Thomson s Gazelle, and Wildebeest to and from the Serengeti every year from July to October. The Great Migration is one of the most impressive natural events on the planet, involving some 1,300,000 Wildebeest, 500,000 Thomson s Gazelles, 97,000 Topi, 18,000 Elands, and 200,000 Zebras. Hungry predators, most notably lions and hyena, follow these migrants along their annual, circular route. Pretty sure we are going to see all of that! All members of the Big Five (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhinoceros) live in the Masai Mara. With some luck, we may also find African Painted Dogs (Wild Dog) With over 4oo lions in the region we are sure to see them, as well as Cheetahs. Leopards are the most elusive but, we may find them here. Our first camp in the Mara is a six tent camp. As before, we will enjoy all of the privileges of a private game reserve during our stay here. September 6 After breakfast, we ll board our plane and head off for the next leg of our Safari in the Masai Mara. Once settled, we ll have lunch and then head out for our afternoon game drive. We ll spend the afternoon in search of wildlife and salute the end of the day with the venerable tradition of a sundowner. In other words, we are going to have a drink and watch the sunset! We ll be watching for more nocturnal wildlife on our way back to camp and our awaiting dinner. September 7 After our breakfast we ll be exploring the reserve much the same as yesterday except today we will stay on the conservancy property allowing us the freedom to travel off the road while following the wildlife. Much like yesterday, we ll find a lovely spot for our G&T (gin and tonic) and watch the sunset.
September 8 We ll depart camp early in the morning all packed up for our overland trip to our final camp of the safari. We ll enjoy a sunrise photo shoot with a bush breakfast and perhaps a sunriser before arriving back in camp. We are spending our last three nights in this camp which is in the territory of several lion prides. We will have our best chance to photograph both leopards and cheetahs at this camp. September 9 and 10 We ll spend one day in the Masai Mara Park and the other in the conservancy. Our schedule will be much like what you ve now come to expect. Breakfast - Game Drive - Lunch - Game Drive - Sundowner - Dinner - Repeat! September 11 We ll have a final game drive in the early morning and look for wildlife as out guide takes us back through Masai Mara Reserve on the way to the airstrip. We will fly back to Nairobi arriving around midday. Since most international flights leave Nairobi between 10 pm and midnight, I ve booked rooms at an airport hotel. We can relax, use the pool, and dream about our return to Africa!
African Safari - September 2016 Safari Overview DD 2 nights Nairobi DD 3 nights Amboseli DD 5 nights Masai Mara DD All Inclusive Unlike my usual workshops, this is more of a tour. The biggest difference is that we won t have formal classes and I ll be in a far more active photographing mode. Of course, I will help you with your photography and of course we ll spend time together looking at images and all of that sort of thing. We are going to be traveling and hanging out together for the whole Safari. This safari a dry run for future trips and I have been to some but not all of the lodges that we will be visiting. Because of this, I m only inviting people that already know me, and that won t mind a bit of shared discovery. You are getting a benefit from being on the trial run because this safari is being offered at an introductory price. This safari includes all meals, drinks, camp activities, game drives in private vehicles, park fees and all in-country transportation including flights and airport pickups and dropoffs. Your only expenses will be airfare to Nairobi, gratuities for the staff at the lodges and any items you may decide to buy. And no you can t buy one of the baby elephants!
I hope that you will be able to join me on this amazing African safari to Kenya for the Great Migration in 2016. As I think you know, I ve been to Africa for 11 safaris and love Africa like no place else on earth. I m thrilled with the way this safari itinerary is organized, and I think it will be perfect for those making their first trip as well as seasoned safari travelers. The 10 night 11 day safari will be $8495 per person and double occupancy. The rate is not guaranteed until your 20% deposit is received. The deposit needs to be made by November 1, 2016 and the balance will be due July 1, 2016. My partners at Gamewatchers Safaris will collect and administer all of the financial details. Let me know when you are ready to book so I can give you the link for my safari. Terms and Cancellation Policy: Cancellation charges are determined by the fact that once we have booked with hotels and safari camps/lodges and with local airlines, they will charge us a cancellation fee if we cancel a booking. We try to keep such charges to a minimum and they are as follows: Bookings canceled or amended up to 120 days before commencement of the safari incur a 10% cancellation charge. Cancellation or amendment less than 120 days and up to 60 days prior to commencement of the safari: 20% cancellation charge. Cancellation or amendment less than 60 days but up to 30 days prior to commencement of the safari 50% refund, 50% cancellation charge. Cancellation or amendment less than 30 days but up to 15 days prior to commencement of the safari: 25% refund, 75% cancellation charge. Cancellation or amendment less than 15 days or more than 3 days prior to commencement of the safari: 10% refund and 90% cancellation charge. Cancellation or amendment 3 days or less before commencement of the safari - no refund, 100% cancellation charge. Any refunds due to you in the event of cancellation can be credited only to the original card used for making the initial payment. Credit card payments: Please note that your payment will show as a charge from I&M Bank, LTD (on behalf of Gamewatachers Safaris). Gamewatchers does not charge credit card processing fees on the deposit even for international transactions however your credit card company may have fees for international transactions. A 3% credit card fee will be charge for credit cards used for the final payment. This reimburses us for the fee we are charged by the credit card company. If you would prefer, we can also accept direct bank wire transactions instead in which case you can avoid any charges your own credit card company may impose.
African Safari - September with Jeff 2016 Wendorff s Wildlife Workshops ~ jeffworkshops@gmail.com ~ www.wildlifeworkshops.com