Ballooning - Masai Mara

included in your trip. Others charge you $450 for it.

Day 7 Mount Kenya – Masai Mara National Reserve

You fly this morning to the Masai Mara National Reserve, in the southwest corner of Kenya – one of the best areas for game viewing. Every year, up to two million wildebeest and 500,000 zebra gather in giant herds, cross these vast open grasslands migrating north from the Serengeti plains in Tanzania in search of lush grass. Following an established great circular route (beginning on the southern Serengeti plains), they instinctively cross the Sand, Talek and Mara rivers at exactly the same place each year. Their yearly journey takes about nine months and covers some 500 miles; they return to the beginning point in the late fall. Continually harried by predators, wide columns of exhausted animals converge at one site on the Mara River waiting nervously to cross. They must swim past crocodiles, hippos, and vultures before reaching the opposite bank.

Lions are found in large prides here, and it’s not unusual to see them hunting. Elephants, buffaloes, zebras and hippos also exist here in large numbers. This area is a reserve, rather than a national park; and the Masai people are allowed to graze and hunt animals here.

You stay at Governors’ Camp, with its authentic safari atmosphere; all guest facilities are under canvas, including luxurious en-suite bathrooms. Its name is derived from the colonial governors who once had sole use of the area. This evening, your delicious multi-course gourmet dinner is served in the candlelit dining tent. Relax afterward with your companions around the campfire. (B,L,D)

Your breakfast is served on the banks of the Mara River. The Masai Mara is considered the best game-viewing site in Africa, and today you travel in specially designed four-wheel vehicles on a game drive to see an incredible variety of wildlife – elephants, cheetahs, baboons, gazelles, giraffes, jackals, hyenas, water buffaloes, ostriches, and several types of antelope. There is an extensive assortment - over 400 recorded species - of bird life as well.

Your gourmet dinner this evening is served in the relaxing atmosphere of your luxury tented safari camp; recount the day’s activities around the campfire with your companions and naturalist guides. (B,L,D)

You have another extraordinary treat today – silently gliding across the plains from a hot air balloon. Rising with the sun, you have a birds-eye view of the plains and rivers, in addition to the wildlife, as you glide over the expansive countryside. These highly maneuverable balloons carry you soundlessly as low as a few hundred feet over the treetops and as high as 1,000 feet. The wildlife is clearly visible and the broad horizon is stunning. Your champagne breakfast is served upon landing in the park before you are escorted back to camp.

The tall, proud Masai were once renowned warriors; they now tend their herds and live on the fringes of the reserve. Red cloaked, wearing necklaces and earrings of bright-colored beads, each carries an iron spear as tall as he is. Smiling women with shaved heads are dressed in bright clothes and beads. They welcome you to their village. Later, you fly to Nairobi and overnight at the Norfolk Hotel. (B,L,D)

Depart by air for the Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania. It is dramatically situated on a narrow bank of lake shore along the western wall of the Great Rift Valley. Toward evening, look for bushbuck, rhinos, aardvarks and leopards. This park is also sanctuary to hippos, giraffe, buffalo, impala, zebra and tree-climbing lions. The lake itself is a haven for a variety of bird life – pelicans, storks, cormorants and literally thousands of flamingoes.

Your evening accommodation is at the Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge, overlooking the Great Rift Valley and Lake. Its conical thatched roofs rise up above the lip of the Great Rift escarpment. Imitating African huts, the sleeping units feature curves and arches of white plaster with natural and painted twig trim, colorful fabrics, and woven wicker light fixtures. (B,L,D)

Day 11 Lake Manyara

The national park here is a small reserve - really a jungle with large, flat acacia trees and thick undergrowth. But the lake covers two-thirds of the area. On your game drive today, you likely see lion, elephant and hippo; the forest here provides habitat for troops of baboons and blue monkeys.

Relax by the glorious pool this afternoon; it sits dramatically on a cliff-side perch with one edge that seems to vanish into the sweep of the valley below. A resident naturalist talks to you about the local flora and fauna. (B,L,D)

This morning, you visit a working coffee plantation at Gibbs Farm. This is one of East Africa’s rare authentic country inns as well. Your lunch is served here, overlooking sweeping vistas of the rich agricultural valley.

You drive on to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area - a region that has at least seven extinct volcanoes and an incredibly varied terrain. The Ngorongoro Crater has been called the eighth natural wonder in the world; it is 12 miles in diameter and is a haven for wildlife because of the permanent water and pasture on the crater floor. The variety and number of animals here is unequalled in East Africa.

You stay at the Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge, on the crater’s western rim, 2,000 feet above the floor, in a rambling two-story lodge of wood and local volcanic stone. The scene from your private veranda is of lush tropical vegetation cascading down the slopes and breathtaking views of the crater floor. Dinner is served in the impressive second-floor restaurant, at the top of a spiral staircase decorated with wood and leather furnishings, overlooking the crater. (B,L,D)