Our family of four went on a seven-day Kenyan safari, visiting Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, and Amboseli. We were incredibly lucky to have Zachary the Greatest as our driver and guide. Zachary and Josef picked us up from our hotel in Nairobi, and after a quick briefing from Josef, we dropped him off at the company office and set off on what became the most amazing trip of our lives.
Travelling between the parks was long, but also exciting and eye-opening, especially for Europeans not accustomed to the local way of living. Every park we visited was brilliant and worth seeing, but Maasai Mara was our favourite, particularly because of the abundance of wildlife during the great migration season. We spent three days there, taking different routes each day. On our first day we visited a Maasai village, which was a great experience. We were greeted by the chief and were shown around the village, Maasai also perform a dance for dance and they also performed their famous jumping for us. In Maasai Mara we saw four out of the Big Five - elephants, lions, buffalo, and leopards (twice). Although we missed the rhino, we saw countless zebras, wildebeest, many giraffes, cheetahs, hyenas, and a huge variety of birds including ostriches, vultures, and eagles.
Thanks to Zachary’s incredible eagle eye, we even saw a black mamba - something we never imagined we would ever see! One day, he took us by surprise and organised a walk along the banks of the Mara River with an armed ranger, we spotted hippos and crocodiles from a safe distance.
After Maasai Mara, we drove to Lake Nakuru, where the very first animal we saw was a rhino - completing our Big Five! We later saw more rhinos and enjoyed an afternoon drive around the lake, including a visit to Makalia Falls. Lake Nakuru is a smaller, enclosed park compared to Maasai Mara, but still absolutely worth visiting, especially for bird lovers. We saw plenty of pelicans and other species, as well as Rothschild giraffes (different from the Maasai giraffes in Mara), zebras, baboons, hippos, and colobus monkeys.
The next day we took a long drive toward Amboseli, with a stop at Lake Naivasha for a boat trip. It was a bit scary but an unforgettable experience to see hippos from water level. We kept a safe distance, and also saw pelicans, fish eagles, cormorants, and sacred ibis. Halfway through the boat ride, we stopped at an animal sanctuary for a short walking safari among wildebeest, giraffes, and antelopes. Afterward, we visited the Great Rift Valley viewpoint before continuing to Amboseli, arriving in the early evening.
On the way, we made an unplanned stop to help repair another safari truck headed in the same direction. Zachary, apart from being an outstanding guide, driver, and an incredibly funny and genuinely lovely person, also turned out to be a mechanic!
We spent two days in Amboseli. The park is very dry and the drives were dusty, but the scenery more than made up for it, especially the breathtaking views of Mount Kilimanjaro. Amboseli had the largest concentration of elephants we saw, including some with impressively long tusks. In addition to the usual zebras, wildebeest, buffalo, and giraffes, we spotted lions, cheetahs, monkeys, hyenas, ostriches, pelicans, secretary birds, bustard birds, and even a very strange-looking giraffe antelope.
From the very first day, Zachary asked what animals we most hoped to see. I mentioned the serval, and Zachary warned that it would require incredible luck. On our last morning, just ten minutes from the park gates as we headed back toward the airport - there it was. A serval! It was the perfect final moment of our safari and summed up our experience with Zachary the Greatest: absolutely amazing. You ask Zachary - Zachary delivers.
Zachary was truly a highlight of our trip. Without a doubt, our safari would not have been the same without him. If you have the chance to choose - choose Zachary. If you don’t have a choice and end up with him, consider yourself extremely lucky!
Our accommodation and food were wonderful throughout the trip, especially at Sentrim Mara Camp, which was our favourite. Explorers Wild Adventure proved to be an excellent company to work with, and communication with Johann before our arrival in Africa was impeccable. We highly recommend them to anyone uncertain about which safari company to choose.
Thank you to everyone at Explorers Wild Adventure for making our holiday so unforgettable.