Rwanda's Gorillas and Kenya's Maasai Mara

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Nairobi

On this tour you’ll have the chance to meet orphaned elephants at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The trust was set up over 40 years ago by Daphne Sheldrick in memory of her husband David, who was a famous warden and naturalist in Tsavo East National Park. It has developed into the most successful rescue and rehabilitation programme for elephants in the world, with many of the babies released back into the wild in Tsavo after about three years of rehabilitation.

At around 10.00am you’ll transfer by private vehicle to Nairobi National Park, arriving at the centre for the 11.00am feeding. The elephants know when it’s time to have their milk and come running down into the feeding area. As the keepers feed them, a guide from the trust will introduce you to the individual elephants and tell you their rescue stories. You’ll get to ask questions while the animals play.

Visiting will give you a chance to get up close to the elephants, learn about the wildlife trust’s work and contribute to the conservation of these incredible animals. As well as helping orphaned elephants and rhinos, the trust works on anti-poaching initiatives, habitat protection and runs mobile vet clinics. Following the visit, return to your hotel.

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Go Granny Go!

Nairobi

Visit some of the entrepreneurial grandmas who make a living from pig farming in the rural outskirts of Nairobi. In Kenya, grandmothers often carry the burden of looking after their grandchildren and extended families. With no social security and faced with extreme poverty, this is incredibly tough, and many children will abandon the home in search of food. Go Granny Go! was set up to give grandmas a way to earn a sustainable income through farming – this is pivotal in keeping families together.

At around 9.30am, transfer by private vehicle to a Kikuyu village on the outskirts of Nairobi. The visit is led by a guide from the local community who’s also been through one of the programmes. You’ll receive a warm welcome from one of the grandmas, who’ll show you around their homes and small-scale pig farms. Then enjoy a cup of tea and help cook a traditional Kenyan lunch while the women share their inspiring stories with you. There’s often lots of singing and laughter, it’s all about the women's journeys and getting an insight into Kenyan culture. The experience stands out from typical tours because it’s so raw and real, it’s everyday life and you get to visit the grassroots communities that most travellers never see.

When you take the Go Granny Go! tour, you directly contribute to funding the project, so you can give back to the local community while you travel. Following the tour, return to your hotel arriving at around 4.00pm.

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Photographing wildlife in the Maasai Mara

Maasai Mara

Governors’ Camp has a resident photographer who offers specialist photographic safaris for guests. Although the elephants and lions in the Maasai Mara are beautiful to photograph, it's often the wildlife that you don’t often see, the smaller animals like the jackals and servals that provide interesting pictures. 
On the photographic safaris, guests will be given tips on where to take pictures, how to use a 300mm lens to capture the wildlife and how to showcase the differing Mara landscapes.

Every time, there’s something different to photograph, be it lion prides or more unexpected sights like impalas fighting. There's a huge expanse of grassland that goes on for miles, with very little interruption, so a herd of elephants in the distance really stands out against the vast landscape.

What’s special about Governors’ is that it’s located right by the Mara River, which draws all kinds of animals. If you love elephants, you’ll probably be able to sit outside your tent and watch them. You don’t need to drive more than half an hour outside of camp to see everything from buffalo to cheetahs, impala and all types of birds.

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Witness the Wildebeest Great Migration

The Serengeti

The Serengeti is a grand stage for the world’s top wildlife show: The Great Migration. This epic event sees millions of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle make their yearly journey from the Serengeti into Kenya’s Maasai Mara, following life-giving rains and lush grasslands. Track their quest from the comfort of your 4×4 and witness this timeless wildlife spectacle in its various stages – from mass calving on the southern plains to early summer’s scramble north, complete with dangerous crossings over the crocodile-infested Grumeti River.

What’s special about watching the migration in the Serengeti, rather than the Maasai Mara, is that you don’t just get one chance to follow the action. Visit between December and March and you’ll see millions of baby wildebeest nursing on the short-grass plains, or watch the drama of the herds on the move between June and October when they funnel north like a parade of ants. Your guide will know the best places to catch a glimpse of the show – some safari camps have even adopted a mobile set-up, meaning they can migrate right alongside the herds.

Nothing can quite prepare you for this world-famous wildlife display. Known as the largest mass movement of land animals on the planet, the herds move as one snorting, thundering sea of hooves across the parched savannah. It’s a wonder best appreciated from above on a hot air balloon ride or while swooping in to land at your safari camp in a private Cessna. More exciting still are the famed river crossings which bring heart-in-the-mouth moments as the herds stream across the Grumeti, chased from behind by big cats while Nile crocodiles lie ahead, jaws ready to snap. It’s the ultimate safari experience.

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Community and conservation work in the Maasai Mara

Maasai Mara

Since Governors’ started over 50 years ago, they’ve been working closely with the local communities around their camps, offering support with education, health and jobs. Your stay  helps to fund projects like local schools, health clinics and conservation programmes. You can also offer support directly by visiting the local Mara Rianda community, who live in a manyatta village of circular huts set around a cattle enclosure. You’ll pay an entrance fee which goes to the Maasai people and has a huge impact on their livelihood. There’s also a chance to shop for traditional beadwork made by local women.

What Governors’ is trying to do is really bring the local people in so that everyone benefits and no-one feels left behind. They have built new school classrooms and continue to provide learning materials and pay some of the teachers’ salaries. They offer scholarships for further study and have funded training for local people to become teachers, medical staff or to work in tourism. Around 60 percent of the staff at Governors’ are from the local community.

You can also visit the Mara Rianda medical clinic, which helps treat common problems in the Maasai Mara, like malaria and eye disease. Before the clinic opened, locals had to travel a long way to access any treatment, so the clinic has really changed lives. Women now have safe maternity services and since opening in 2013, the clinic has provided regular immunisations and HIV care. Covid has been a particularly critical time for the community, so regular food drives – often funded by donations from guests overseas – have helped with the crisis.

Protecting the landscape and wildlife in the Maasai Mara is just as important. They support conservation work like the Lion Landscapes Project and also work closely with the Maasai Mara National Reserve to create rules for ethical wildlife viewing on safaris. A big part of conservation work is managing conflict between wild animals and the Maasai cattle. Many indigenous trees are destroyed by high concentrations of elephants in the Mara, so they have tree planting projects that guests can get involved with. You can even drop a seed ball over the Mara while on a balloon safari, which helps to replant native trees.

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Governors’ Balloon Flight

Maasai Mara

Take to the skies on the Governors' hot air balloon safari, where you’ll watch the sunrise over the Maasai Mara and get an aerial view of African wildlife. You’ll lift off around 6am in time to see the sunrise from the balloon, painting the sky in buttery shades of orange.

At that time of day, the grazing animals are just waking up. Elephants are munching in the forest, hippos are heading back to the river and the trees are filled with birds. It’s particularly busy during the Annual Great Migration when massive herds of wildebeest roam the plains. Governors’ has the best flight path in the region, drifting along the Mara River above beautiful riverine forest where rhinos graze, before ending in the open savannah where you might see giraffe, zebra and lion. Guests love the serenity of the balloon ride and the fantastic opportunities for photography. You’ll also have the chance to drop seedballs from the balloon, as part of a conservation scheme to replant indigenous African olive trees. At the end of the hour-long flight, the balloon will land near a bush breakfast site where tables are set up under trees in the middle of the savannah. Here you’ll enjoy a lavish breakfast spread including eggs, sausages, pancakes, fruit, muesli, and of course Champagne. It’s a laid-back, picnic-style feast where your pilot will share bush stories and explain the history of ballooning in the Mara.

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