This is the safari for travellers who want to get out of the vehicle. Five days split between the forested foothills of Africa's second-highest mountain and the open rhino country of the Laikipia Plateau, with guided walks, canopy forest, trout streams and some of the best conservation storytelling in Kenya.
The Mountain Days
Based at a lodge on the Mount Kenya foothills near Nanyuki, we spend two days walking: forest trails through cedar and podocarpus alive with colobus and turaco, the Mau Mau caves, and a drive up to the moorland gate at 3,000 metres for views of Batian and Nelion's twin peaks at dawn. These are proper guided walks rather than summit climbing, suitable for anyone with reasonable fitness, and they show you a green, cool Kenya most safaris never touch.
The Rhino Days
Twenty minutes from Nanyuki, Ol Pejeta Conservancy carries East Africa's largest black rhino population, the world's last two northern white rhinos, and a Big Five game-drive circuit that rivals any national park. We include the chimpanzee sanctuary, a visit to the rhino enclosure and an after-dark game drive, which is not permitted in the national parks and regularly turns up aardvark, zorilla and hunting lion.
When to Go
The highlands are at their clearest from December to March and July to October. Mornings are cold enough for fleeces at any time of year, and the mountain is usually sharpest at dawn before cloud builds.
