9 Days- Kenya Wildlife & Uganda Gorilla Trekking

Alternative 1.

Morning breakfast and exit the Lodge with packed lunch for a whole day game drive at the Mara National Reserve in search of the Big 5.

You will later return in the evening for dinner and overnight

Alternative 2.

You can choose a morning Balloon ride (Optional at extra cost)in the early morning where you will be picked up from your Camp and transferred you to the balloon launch site. 06 Schedules:  BALLOON SAFARI IN MASAI MARA – 1 HOUR RIDE.

05:00 am: You will be picked up from your Lodge and transfer you to the launch site. Here you will meet your pilot, receive a briefing and watch the inflation of your balloon.

At dawn we take off, rising as the sun rises and float in whichever direction the winds of the morning take us. Your pilot can precisely control the altitude of your balloon: sometimes flying at treetop height, sometimes lower, offering a unique perspective and great photographic opportunities of the wildlife below.

From time to time the pilot must put more heat into the balloon with the powerful whisper burners. In between these burns, there is silence apart from the natural sounds below.
The flight is for about one hour depending on conditions, on landing you celebrate in the traditional manner with champagne (well, an excellent sparkling wine), before sitting down to a full English breakfast prepared and served in the bush in ‘Out of Africa’ style

After breakfast you receive your Balloon certificate and we drive you back to the Lodge with game viewing Enroute.

This is how it goes about.

You will ascend in early morning when the winds are calmest.

Watch as your professional crew fills the balloon with hot air. Slowly the big colourful bag begins to bulge and take shape. Now board the traditional wicker gondola basket while the expert pilot makes final adjustments. As the pink and red fireball of the sun rises in splendor over the plain, you are up and away –for the flight of a life time!

Your balloon can soar over the most inaccessible and undisturbed parts of the Mara, with only the intermittent whisper of the balloon’s gas burners punctuating the silence of your majestic flight .Because wind and conditions vary, every flight is a new and a different experience.From your vantage point about 50—500 feet above the reserve, you have a fantastic 360 degrees bird’s view as one of the most dramatic scenes in nature unfolds beneath you. From here, you will see the wonder of migrations, witness herds of antelope flowing like school of fish across the plain, groups of elephants grazing undisturbed in a remote ravine, lioness stealthily stalking a herd of grunting wildebeest or zebras conferring in a confusion of black and while stripes and bark-like calls.

After your incredible flight, it is time to come back down to earth for breakfast. As you dig into a splendid breakfast of sizzling bacon, eggs, sausages, home-made breads, fresh tropical fruit and steaming cups of Kenyan tea under the clear blue sky, you might wonder what all the ordinary people are doing on this perfect African morning.

Before leaving, the pilot will present you with a balloon flight certificate. No flight of the imagination can match this air-borne experience

On your way back to the Lodge you will pass through the Maasai village.

MASAI VILLAGE:  See and experience their wonderful culture. And while at the village, you will visit the Maasai village for local interaction, cultural exchange, dances, fire lighting with a barbeque goat eating ceremony.

In the village Maasai women dancing will welcome you. A guide will take you through the village explaining in details the way the Maasai live, their beliefs and traditions. You will get demonstrations of how the Maasai make fire-using sticks.

You will go into their houses and will be shown the full family set-up. At the end of the guided tour you will go a market where you will have a chance to buy some items and curios made in their village. While in the village you are allowed to take as many pictures as you want.

Lunch at the Lodge.

Afternoon game drive.

Return to the Lodge for dinner and overnight amidst Maasai traditional dancers.