Booked! Kenya/Rwanda 2012
 

Is anything so exultifying (is that a word?) as booking a safari? My pop and I (and his wife) diverted from our usual wildlife heavy travel destination to take in SE Asia this past year...I loved it...it was awesome...the trip report is in the Asia Forum with pictures if anyone cares to see, but for the Africaphile, the wildlife-obsessed, it leaves you jonesin' for an animal-filled itinerary! (I did manage to fit in a primate rehab center as well as a pangolin center with animals confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade, but as you all know, Africa is a whole different ball of wax!

So I had to announce it somewhere and this seemed the perfect spot (to a bunch of folks that I don't know and likely will never meet, but are equally as "into" Africa and its wildlife as I) that we've booked our trip for Kenya and Rwanda next year...Woohoo!

I'll be taking my 17 year old niece who loves wildlife too....and pop will come along for our 11th trip to Africa...but it's been 20 years since we visited Kenya(!) It was likely 10 years ago or more that I was last in East Africa in Tanzania...so I'm excited to be back and see it all over again....much of the itinerary is from reading this board and researching things on the side...our last visit to Kenya was our first trip to Africa...so whatever we saw blew us away...we're probably a little more saavy this time around and we've tried to time it as best we can to hit parts of the Great Migration..we were constricted by travel dates and personal schedules so it's always a roll of the dice as the trip will take place in late July and early August...

Night one -- Fairview Hotel

Flight to Lewa ---for two nights at Lewa Safari Camp

Flight to Nairobi and onward to Kigali in Rwanda

In Rwanda for three night --one day of mountain gorilla trekking
staying at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge and time in Kigali to see genocide museum, etc...

Flight back to Nairobi and then fly to Mara Serena for three nights...

Transfer to Governor's Camp for three nights and back through Nairobi and onward home...

We shifted all of our nights in the Mara to the last part of our trip in hopes of catching some of the Mara River crossings we've seen so much footage and great action pictures...we'll keep our fingers crossed as to the animal's timing and ours and hope they intersect...unbeknownst to me, the last time we were there in January, we were looking at resident populations of wildlife not necessarily the migration....and our time in Tanzania (August) we were likely seeing the tail end of the migration...so we hope to hit it at a great time to see lots of action including the predators that follow the herds...

Just thought I'd share and also of course will follow up with a trip report when it's all done...now I'll likely obsess for the next eight months until it's time to depart!

Congrats on booking--looks like a great trip. You'll love Rwanda!

Lots to look forward to in 2012!

HI, did you do al the bookings yourself or use a tour planner company?
If so, which?
I'm going back to Kenya/Uganda for the first time in 40 yrs, will be there July 2012.

Any reason why breaking up the trip with Rwanda in the middle? Your international flight tickets?

It's often easier to fly into Rwanda, do the Gorilla stuff, then back to Kenya and visit areas as you show, then home from here.

Also, in the Mara, both Serena and Main Governor's are located in the Mara Triangle; though a distance from one another, you might want to consider spending a few days 'inside' the Mara (Triangle) and the others on the private conservation lands where bush walks and night game drives can be done.

While the Serena might still be doing night game drives, these are expensive and only the small area dowm the hill from the Lodge.

Just somethings to consider.

Thanks for the advice! The tour operator wanted to end the safari in Rwanda as sort of a finale/highlight with the mountain gorillas...the reason we are not doing it that way---and I could be completely wrong---our dates dictated that we could only travel the last week of JUL and the first week in AUG---I wanted to be sure to be in the Mara to end our trip because from reading this blog and others...it seems that the migration builds momentum in early AUG and seems to peak in late AUG or even into SEPT...now watch all the zebras and wildebeests decide to make an early break for it! : ) The other issue is that Lewa was fully booked or we would have begun the trip in Rwanda, then headed to Lewa and then to the Mara...so we'll see how it all plays out...

We used Eyes on Africa to plan/organize our trip...they did a great job when we went to South Africa two years ago so we felt comfortable with them...

I think we are pretty locked into this itinerary but I do hope we get to do some night drives along the way...I like the odd nocturnal animals you sometimes see...I hope they may allow at the Serena or at least at Lewa...

Well, the Rwanda part is based on availability of permits which is only about 35/per day. Then when it comes to the Kenya segment, yup... if Lewa didn't have space, you work around that.

HOWEVER, I just checked the Lewa Safari Camp availability and they're pretty wide-open for late-July into August. I'd suggest you have your agent recheck that.

As to the migration... these past two years, the herds started arriving as early as beginning of June. They're assured to be there by mid-July and then hang out thru September. Remember, with over 1/million animals, they don't all move (come/go) at the same time, so.... it's luck!

We did a similar trip in 2008 with four days in Rwanda and ten days at Governor's. Out of all of our travels and past trips to Africa, it was our best trip ever. The Mara River crossing was fantastic, with a battle between this one wildebeest and a crocodile (the wildebeest eventually won!) and the gorillas are amazing. You'll have a great time!

Here's a link to our photo books if you're interested...

http://tinyurl.com/78z6ub

http://tinyurl.com/9y9o7u

http://tinyurl.com/8ncb5l

http://tinyurl.com/7h86oz

Thks Loru! I've got an iPad so I'll have to look at your pics on a computer with adobe flash but I can't wait to see them! What dates were you at governors?

Can't remember the exact dates, but early/mid September 2008. Migration was in full swing...tens of thousands of wildebeest...amazing!

We're a full month earlier so I hope we're not gonna whiff it :)

What great pics! Thanks for sharing! Now I'm more excited than ever to get this vacation started! : ) Hope i'm lucky enough to see a serval....for some reason that's the one cat I've missed out on---maybe the 11th time is the charm!