Chyulu Hills Walking Safari

LOITA HILLS WALKING SAFARI

Drive westward, crossing the expanses of the Great Rift Valley, heading up into the 8,000-foot-high Loita Hills. Hiking and exploring in the Loita Hills notable for the variety of its sceneries, which ranges from rolling hills and dramatic escarpments to expansive plains of open savanna country.

DAY 1: NAIROBI - NDARARA
Depart Nairobi passing through the Great Rift Valley, After descending 2,000 ft. to the valley floor which is studded with volcanic mountains, you begin to see an animal kingdom unrivalled anywhere else in Africa. Masailand is the home of huge herds of plains game. Our route then takes us up onto the Mau Escarpment and through the small trading town of Narok where you stopover for 30 minutes before heading South and winding up into the forested Loita Hills close to the Tanzanian border. You will be dropped at Maji Moto (Kiswahili means hot waters) where a hot spring bubbles out of the earth at the foot of the hills. A relaxing bath is a must as you visit Ndarara Mayatta for lunch. Late in the evening reach Ndarara Camp for Dinner and overnight.

DAY 2: NDARARA - LETUKUNYI
After breakfast leave Ndarara for Letukunyi, taking you about 5-6 hours walk through the scattered bushes and exploring the beautiful Loita Hills in the Nguruman Escarpment through the forests where you see striking black and white colombus Monkeys. Occasionally we may see leopard or bushbuck as you visit various secret waterholes. There are also a variety of highland birds to view, such as the turaco, parrot, hornbill, starling, sunbird and the birds of prey. Dinner and overnight at Letukunyi Camp.

Day 3: LETUKUNYI - MORIJO
Leave Letukunyi Camp early in the morning for an enjoyable walk before the sun is too hot . Pass through Narosura for lunch or to buy what might be out of stock. After an hour or two in this remote town in Maasai land, proceed to Morijo for dinner and overnight at Morijo Campsite.

DAY 4: MORINJO - ENKUTOTO
After breakfast, leave Morijo and walk through the forest, few of the remaining true-forested wilderness area in East Africa. The walk will take 5-6 hours across the rolling highlands up to OSupuko, the summit of the Loita Hills (8,660 ft.), with incredible views, before descending to the Camp. This is a favourite roost for velvet monkeys. Walk through the forests and glades in search of bohor reedbuck, East African Eland, Warthog, and the striking black and white Colombus Monkeys. Occasionally we may see Bushbuck as we walk to Enkutoto Campsite.

DAY 5: ENKUTOTO - NJOROI
After breakfast, leave Enkutoto, walking leisurely for 4-5 hours to Njoroi Campsite for dinner and overnight. In the camp enjoy an excellent view of the surrounding area such as lake Magadi, Ngong hills, Lake Natron and all the way to Tanzania border on a clear day.
Dinner and overnight at the Njoroi Campsite.

DAY 6: NJOROI/NGURUMAN - NAIROBI

After breakfast, descend the Escarpment through small farms to Nguruman town for transfer back to Nairobi via Lake Magadi. Ololgesalie prehistoric site which is 40 Km from Nairobi where the Leakey Family discovered axes and tools thought to have been

Walking on Chyulu Hills

Day 1
Depart Nairobi around 0800, for the 3 hour drive down the Mombasa road to Kibwezi. Here we will leave the tarmac, and take a dirt road, (probably an optimistic term for it), for the 30 km to where we start walking to the caves. First though, lunch of cold cuts, salads, bread and cheese, cold beer or soft drink, then an hour walk to the entrance of the caves. Afternoon spent exploring.

Day 2
Explore sections of one of the longest "Lava Tube" caves in the world - Leviathan. These caves, which world-wide, are relatively rare, are thought to have been formed when molten lava, of specific type and viscosity flowed down a slope of a specific angle. The surface layer cooled and solidified, but the lower part, still molten, continued to flow on down. At this point, somewhere up the hillside a collapse of the surface crust occurred through which air enters, and so a tube evacuated itself just below the surface. Afternoon and the evening spent down in the caves looking at some of the fascinating formations found therein - Sink holes, lava ropes, stalagmites and stalactites, benches and of course the secondary, water formed features.

Day 3
Early morning departure by road for the top of the Chyulu Hills. Superb walking country with gently undulating grasslands, interspersed with dense patches of forest. Possibility of viewing herds of eland and other antelope, giraffe, zebra and wildebeest with slightly lesser chance to see elephant, lion and buffalo and the other game that live in the area. Probable views of Kilimanjaro just 50 km away. Night somewhere along the crest. Probably cool and windy with low cloud in the early morning.

Day 4
Full day of walking

Day 5
Early morning game drive or short walk before a late breakfast / early lunch . It's then along the crest road and down the western side of the hills for the drive back to Nairobi arriving before nightfall. Options are of course many and varied and in many cases we can be flexible about the itinerary whilst we are actually on the safari. One may, for instance, wish to spend an extra day caving (or cut out a day), thus spend less time (or longer) walking the Chyulus.

Itinerary may be varied from 3 - 7 or more days and is often combined with Athi River rafting or a visit to Tsavo / Amboseli National Parks.

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