Our schedule today is to ensure that between 0600hrs & 0630hrs we are at the entrance gate of The World’s only Wildlife Capital. A short drive out of Nairobi’s central business district is the Nairobi National Park. Wide open grass plains and backdrop of the city scrapers, scattered acacia bush play host to a wide variety of wildlife including the endangered black rhino, lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, buffaloes, giraffes and diverse birdlife with over 400 species recorded. Visitors can enjoy the park’s picnic sites, three campsites and the walking trails for hikers.

Visiting the Nairobi Orphanage – https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/faqs#visiting

We open our doors to the public for one-hour every day. This is a special, time-honoured tradition in which we invite the public to learn more about our conservation work and meet the orphans in our care. Those wishing to visit need to make a booking in advance, to ensure there is availability.

Visiting The Giraffe Centre is the creation of the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (A.F.E.W. Kenya), a Kenyan non-profit organisation. Our main purpose is to educate Kenyan school children and youth on their country’s wildlife and environment, as well as give local and international visitors an opportunity to come into close contact with the world’s tallest species, the giraffe – https://www.giraffecentre.org/about-us/

After lunch at Emory Hotel, we drive to experience the drama of Lake Naivasha. We will Explorer Naivasha Secret with a combined one hour boat ride and one hour visit to the Crescent Island.  There is just one “Crescent Island Game Sanctuary”. Located on Lake Naivasha, in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya. It is one of the most beautiful parks in Kenya and is often called Naivasha’s best-kept secret. Perfect for Wildlife Watching, Bird Watching, and fans of the wilderness…

Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake, unlike Lakes Elementaita, Nakuru and Bogoria which are Soda. It lies at 6,200 feet above sea level, about 95km north of Nairobi in the Great Rift Valley. Crescent Island and the adjacent Lotus Island, home of a Yacht Club, form the rim of an extinct volcano protruding out of this Lake in the shadow of Mount Longonot, also an extinct volcano, close to Hell’s Gate National Park.

The name Naivasha derives from the local Maasai name Nai’posha meaning “rough water”. The circumference of the Lake is about 80 km, the deepest part is within the Crescent at roughly 18 meters. It is known to have dried out twice since 1898 and is fed by two rivers, one being the Malewa whose source is in the Aberdares. It had one indigenous fish until 1929 when the Black Bass were introduced, followed by Tilapia in 1956 but Carp is now predominant.

In the 1940s when air travel first came to Kenya en route from England to South Africa, the four-engined Flying-Boats landed on Lake Naivasha and the foundations of the Terminal and Customs shed can still be seen today on Crescent Island. It was also pictured on Kenya postage stamps from 1949 to 1952.

Naivasha has seen huge development since the 1980s, the climate ideal for horticulture. Many of the flowers and vegetables sold in the supermarkets in the UK are grown here. Just forty km south of the Equator with a nearly all year even temperature, the combination of dry heat during the day, the cool evenings of high altitude plus close proximity to Nairobi on good roads and easy access to wildlife have made it a hugely attractive place to live with many hotels and houses built around the Lake. Dinner and overnight at Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge (standard rooms)