walking safaris in kenya

 

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walking safaris in kenya

 

 

mathews range

MATHEWS RANGE WALK (5 Nights)

Day 1:

Your flight to the Kitich airstrip is dramatic, beautiful and it gives a good sense of the country that we will be covering on our walk. Kitich camp is one of the most remote states of luxury in East Africa. Located amidst enormous virgin forest, the camp looks out toward the towering heights of the Mathews Range.

After lunch we will have an opportunity to explore some of the game trails around Kitich. We will keep an eye out for Warthog, Elephant as well as the incredible diversity of birds that call this forest home.

ktich
ndoto range
crowned eagle

Day 2:


We will begin our walk right after a simple early breakfast. The camels will carry the luggage and accompany us bearing refreshments and snacks along the way. We will walk below great Croton trees and through occasional grassy glades. If we walk quietly we will have a chance of hearing a Leopard grunting, a Crowned Eagle calling or a Bushbuck barking.

We will be descending from the forest slowly walking around an impenetrable peninsula of mountain that blocks us from making a more direct route up and over to our first camp.
As the forest thins we will begin to bear north following a small stream till we find our camp in a grove of shady Neutonia trees. We will arrive in time for a healthy and satisfying lunch and will be welcomed by our team and camels.


After eating we will have a siesta, read or explore and later in the afternoon we may go for a short stroll to a waterfall where we can enjoy some sundowners. This after-lunch-pattern will be repeated on every consecutive night with alternative options such as badminton tournaments or bird-watching.

Day 3:


We will wake up early and while we are having breakfast our team of Samburu and Laikipia Masai will pack and load the camels and set off towards our next camp.


From our streamside camp we will continue to descend away from the hills. Using dry river beds called luggas in Swahili we will slowly navigate toward our next camp on the Ngeng lugga. The plant life as well as the birds here are dramatically different from that we found at the beginning of our trip. We will point out some of the more dramatic species such as Bristle-crowned Starlings, Magpie Starlings, Verreaux’s Eagle Owls or Shining Sunbirds.

At the Ngeng Lugga we will find our camp on its south bank in the shade of some beautiful Acacia Tortilis trees.

mathews walking safari
tomopterna
african tiger beetle

Day 4 :


Today we will be walking exclusively in the Ngeng lugga. Water passes beneath the surface of this sand river and this produces a hard surface, good for walking. The Ngeng offers a great sense of the erosive power of water as it passes over this country cutting beautifully designed scars in the earth.
Eventually around the next bend in the riverbed we may see a glimpse of our camels or a tent. A cool drink in the mess area is also a welcome sight.

Day 5:


We will be ascending this morning only to then descend again down a small rocky drainage. We will be looking for Gerenuk or Grevy’s Zebra or Grant’s Gazelle in this area, especially as we pass over small rises that allow us to see for a distance. From these vantage points we may also catch a look at the great Seya Lugga that we will eventually enter at a striking cut bank in the main lugga.

In the Seya we will be looking closely at the tracks of the animals that covered this ground before us. We will ascertain quite quickly if the Elephants have been in the neighborhood. They like this area, enjoying the lugga-side vegetation as well as the clean water they can dig from the sand. We will also look closely for the tiny but magnificent tiger beetles that favor the wet sand habitat to breed and hunt. We will be walking due north now descending the Seya lugga along its gentle and almost imperceptible gradient. On the east bank where a secondary lugga meets the Seya we will find our lunch in the shade and our tents ready for a post feeding sleep. After our siesta, a walk and maybe a badminton tournament we will toast our accomplishment from a high point overlooking the wilds of the great Northern Frontier District of Kenya.

Day 6:
We will wake up early and walk out of the Seya to a nearby track where a vehicle will be waiting for us, to take us to the airstrip and our onward journey.

mathews camel safari
mathews walking safari