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SILVER AFRICA TOURS & SAFARIS

Airport North Rd, Nyayo Embakasi suite 88/13,
P.O.BOX 60854 code 00200 city square,
Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa
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http://www.silverafricatours.com

Wings over Mara Premium Safari.

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TOUR CODE: SAT011
Validity: 01st March 2011 ? 15th December 2011
Minimum: 02 pax
Transportation: 4x4 vehicle on seat in car basis with the services of an English speaking guide
Start: Nairobi
End: Nairobi
Departures: Guaranteed daily departure

Trsf ? Transfer, BB ? Bed & Breakfast, L ? Lunch, D ? Dinner , LDBB ? Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast, E ? Early morning game drive, A ? Morning game drive, P ? Afternoon game drive, LE ? Leisure, CT ? Crater Tour, GV ? Game viewing from the lodge, FLT - Flight

DETAILED ITINERARY

DAY 01 ?ARRIVAL NAIROBI

Met upon arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Silver Africa Tours Representative. Assistance and transfer to The Norfolk Hotel. Rest of the day at leisure with the possibility of realizing optional excursions. Accommodation on bed and breakfast basis at The Norfolk Hotel (BB).

The exterior of The Fairmont Norfolk Hotel has changed little since the colonial era. Timbered walls covered in vines and creepers, the taxi rank with old London cabs queuing to take guests where they will, look much the same as they did in the old photographs that chart the history of Kenya. Opened on Christmas Day 1904, (and still justifiably famous for its Christmas Morning cocktail party) The Fairmont Norfolk has hosted such luminaries as Lord Delamere, Theodore Roosevelt and Karen Blixen. Now expensively refurbished the hotel still retains a sense of history. The new reception areas of the Norfolk Hotel are light, bright and immediately welcoming. Ceiling fans, cane chairs, plump animal-print cushions and deep sofas combine with locally sourced woods to create a tranquil ambience with echoes of the colonial period in which The Fairmont Norfolk featured so strongly. However, not all is new - the long case clock in the hall, for example, was presented to the hotel by the drivers in the Nairobi to Johannesburg Race on 26th October, 1936. The Ibis Restaurant, at The Fairmont Norfolk, is renowned locally for its innovative use of the best and freshest of ingredients Kenya has to offer. The executive chef ensures that the chefs gain experience in the finest hotels and restaurants in Europe. The cosmopolitan cuisine features classic and new dishes exquisitely prepared, and finely tuned as to seasoning and accompaniments. The chic clientele bear witness to the restaurants popularity. The Lord Delamere Terrace and Restaurant offers less formal dining. Here you may take a light meal or indulge in the sumptuous themed buffets. The Hibiscus lounge is ideal for a colonial-style afternoon tea. Accommodation at The Fairmont Norfolk varies from large opulent suites to smaller, more intimate rooms. All are beautifully furnished and many look out onto the hotel's lovely gardens. The grounds are immaculate and profusely planted with indigenous plants. Artefacts from the hotel's history are dotted around including a sedan chair from the colonial era. The Fairmont Norfolk Hotel offers all the comforts of a modern first class hotel yet combines it with an intriguing sense of history.

DAY 02 ? DAY 02 ? NAIROBI/MASAI MARA GAME RESERVE.

After breakfast transfer to Wilson Airport for scheduled flight to Masai Mara departing at 10h00. Met upon arrival at Keekorok Airstrip by Cottar?s 1920?s Camp vehicle/guide at 10h45 and transfer to Cottar?s 1920?s Camp Check in and lunch. Afternoon game drive with the camp vehicle/guide on seat in car basis. Dinner and overnight at Cottar?s 1920?s Camp (LDBB).

DAY 03 ? MASAI MARA GAME RESERVE

Early morning game drive with the camp vehicle/guide on seat in car basis returning to the camp for breakfast. Morning game drive with the camp vehicle/guide on seat in car basis. Lunch. Afternoon game drive with the camp vehicle/guide on seat in car basis. Dinner and overnight at Cottar?s 1920?s Camp (LDBB).

For those who wish to step back in time Cottar's 1920's Camp, in a 22,000-acre exclusive concession in the Masai Mara, is just perfect. The Cottars have been guiding safaris since 1919 and the tradition continues. The camp is pitched in a place of astonishing beauty with fabulous views all around fading to misty-blue in the distance. Spacious cream canvas tents, with generous verandahs, contain four posters with white damask canopies, lovely linen and sheer mosquito nets. The chest of drawers is an antique travelling trunk, hanging canvas shelves take folded clothes, kilims adorn the floor - everything is picturesque and in period. Only the bathroom, while in the style of the 1920's, offers more modern conveniences - a flush loo, shower and running water. However, the wrought iron stand for the basin with integral mirror and candlesticks looks entirely authentic. Guests are also enchanted by the rest of the camp. A library tent contains an elegant day bed with a delicate muslin canopy that just invites you to curl up with one of the excellent selection of books displayed on the shelves there. A large coffee table displays the imposing suede-covered visitors book and artefacts from the 1920's. The dining tent displays an intriguing tall octagonal box bound with metal straps that opens to reveal old-fashioned black umbrellas - obviously little used! Dining is also in true to the period. The table is laid with silver cutlery and bright white napery. The glasses are crystal and the staff immaculately turned out in white tunic and fez, as they would have been in the colonial era. The cuisine is equally elegant and beautifully served. Bordering the Serengeti and Loliondo reserves, the flagship camp in the Masai Mara offers the discerning client a guarantee of privacy and an abundance of wildlife. Calvin and Louise Cottar live at the camp and ensure that the service in all areas, from butlers, chefs and service team, is absolutely first-rate. Dedicated and skilful trackers and, of course, Calvin himself, will make the pursuit of game a fascinating and informative experience. Cottar's 1920's Camp allows the traveller to revisit the Africa of the past. You have returned to a golden era of romance, professional guiding, adventure and luxury.

OProbably the most famous of the reserves, the Masai Mara, in Kenya's southwestern corner, boasts an astonishing amount of game. Unfenced, the Mara is bounded in the east by the Ngama Hills and in the west by the Oloololo or Siria Escarpment. Gazelle, wildebeest and zebra graze in large numbers and where prey is found so are predators. Not only is this a great place in which to find game, but also the wide greeny-gold savannahs spotted with thorn trees make it ideal for photography. The Mara, as it is known in Kenya, is ravishingly beautiful and also offers long, undisturbed views and utterly dramatic panoramas. The weather really means something here. The sun may beat down unforgiving, huge clouds in fabulous shapes may sweep across the widest of skies; the wind ripples the grasses as though a giant hand strokes them. The landscape is stunning. The famously black-manned Mara lions are possibly the stars of the Mara show, but cheetah, elephant, kongoni, topi, Thompson's gazelle, waterbuck, hyena, and primates are all here too. As with the rest of Kenya, the birding is good. There is no settlement within the reserve however, the Mara is in theory owned by the Masai, pastoralists and, in earlier times, renowned lion-killers. Lodges and hotels offer the opportunity to buy their beadwork, checked cloths and copies of their spears. It is said that if lions scent approaching Masai on the breeze they move swiftly in the opposite direction. Famously, the Mara is the northerly end of the Great Migration, that great primeval surge of wildebeest, zebra and antelope that sweeps in from Tanzania's Serengeti to Kenya's Masai Mara as the Tanzanian grass starts to fail. The large predators who pick off the weak, the stragglers and the young track them. The great herds, nearing their destination by July, mass along the Mara River, pushing, shoving and fantastically noisy, just waiting for the first animal to cross so that they can all follow, lemming-like, on the final leg of the journey. However, crocodiles lie in wait, sluggishly cruising the waters, fully prepared for their best meal of the year. Many fail in the life-and-death struggle - drowned, eaten by the crocodiles or, made careless or weak by their stressful swim, brought down by lions. The Masai Mara is terrible yet wonderful, and not to be missed.

DAY 04 ? MASAI MARA GAME RESERVE/NAIROBI/DEPARTURE.

Early morning game drive with the camp vehicle/guide on seat in car basis returning to the camp for breakfast. After breakfast transfer to Musiara Airstrip for scheduled flight to Nairobi departing at 11h00. Met upon arrival at Wilson Airport at 12h15 by Silver Africa Tours representative and transfer to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your ownward departure flight. End of our services. All prices indicated are in US$ and are net and non commissionable:

Easter supplement applicable on 10+11+12+13.04.10(inclusive) US$45.00 per person per night

Included:
? Accommodation and meals as indicated above
? 4x4 vehicle (seat in car basis) for game drives and airstrip transfers
? Return flights Wilson/Masai Mara/Wilson
? All park fees
? All transfers and assistance


Excluded:
? International flights, visas and airport taxes
? Personal expenses like drinks, tips, laundry etc
? Personal insurance and baggage insurance

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