Three countries. Sixteen nights. One guide.
The longest journey we build, and the only one where a single guide crosses two borders with you.
Sixteen nights across Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania with one guide for the whole route and two nights fly-camping in the middle. June to October only.
- From
- $34,600 pp
- Duration
- 16 nights
- Best months
- Jun–Oct
- Party size
- 2 – 4 guests
Everything we know how to do, in one arc
This is the journey we write when someone has three weeks and has been to Africa before. It runs Rwanda to Kenya to Tanzania — forest, then the northern frontier, then the plains and the crater — with two nights of fly-camping in Laikipia in the middle, which is the part guests remember when the gorillas have become a story they tell.
Sixteen nights allows something none of our shorter itineraries can: two consecutive nights doing nothing at all, twice, without losing anything. It also allows the weather to be wrong for two days without ruining a leg, which on a journey of this cost is worth more than another region.
One guide travels the whole route, including both border crossings, with local specialists joining for the gorilla trekking, Olduvai and the Samburu walking. Sixteen nights with one person is either the best or the worst decision on a journey like this, which is why we tell you who it will be before you confirm.
- Two gorilla permits in Rwanda, on consecutive days
- Two nights fly-camping in Laikipia — no vehicles, no staff beyond your own
- The northern five in Samburu, walked with Samburu moran
- The Mara crossings in season, from conservancy land
- A northern Serengeti mobile camp pitched to the herds
- Ngorongoro crater at six in the morning, and Olduvai with a specialist
- Both borders crossed by charter, with immigration at the strip
Ideal traveller
Experienced travellers with three weeks who want range rather than repetition, and are fit enough for gorilla trekking and two nights under a fly sheet. Two to four guests; above four the fly-camping loses its point.
The itinerary
Kigali
Met at the airport, taken into the city. An afternoon at the genocide memorial with a guide who will not rush you.
To Volcanoes
Two hours north through terraced hills. Briefing, boot fitting, and an early dinner before a five-thirty start.
First trek
Into the bamboo at dawn — forty minutes to three hours of climbing, then one hour with a gorilla family. The afternoon is deliberately empty.
Second trek
A different family, a different climb, and almost always the better hour. Golden monkeys in the afternoon for anyone with the legs for it.
To Nairobi
A morning flight east via Kigali. An afternoon in the Karen hills, laundry done, and the first proper night’s sleep since the forest.
To Samburu
A 70-minute charter north over Mount Kenya. Afternoon along the Ewaso Nyiro: the northern five, and elephant coming down to drink.
Samburu, on foot
Dawn along the river, then walking with Samburu moran who read this country at a level that is genuinely humbling.
Into Laikipia, and out again
Forty minutes south by air, then straight out on foot with camels. The fly-camp is two tents, a fire and a cook, pitched wherever you stopped.
Fly-camping
A full day walking between camps, at whatever pace suits. No vehicles, no radio traffic, and the quietest twenty-four hours on the journey.
Rhino, and a bed
Back to a lodge in the morning, and black rhino tracked on foot with the ranger team in the afternoon. A hot bath is the highlight, and nobody pretends otherwise.
To the Mara conservancies
A 100-minute charter south-west. Afternoon on conservancy land: the resident prides, and the first columns of wildebeest if the season is right.
The Mara
First light out, long breakfast, hot hours free, and a night drive after dinner.
Into the reserve
A full day south — the river, the plains, and the crossing points at Serena and the Lookout in season. Breakfast in the vehicle.
Across the border
A late-morning charter from Ol Kiombo to Kogatende, immigration at the strip. Afternoon along the Mara river’s southern bank in Tanzania.
Northern Serengeti
Kopjes, plains and the Sand river, with the migration front arriving several kilometres wide. Your mobile camp moved eleven days ago.
To Ngorongoro, via Olduvai
South across the plains, stopping at Olduvai Gorge and the Laetoli footprints with a specialist. Up onto the crater highlands by dark.
The crater, and homeward
Down onto the crater floor at six, before the gate traffic — black rhino, the densest lion in Tanzania — and out by eleven for the afternoon flight from Arusha.
Eight properties, one of them a fly sheet
Sixteen nights across eight properties: a Kigali hotel, a forest lodge at Volcanoes, a Nairobi garden house, a Samburu riverside camp, two nights of fly-camping and a Laikipia lodge, a Mara conservancy camp, a northern Serengeti mobile camp, and a lodge on the Ngorongoro rim.
The fly-camp is the exception and the point. Two walk-in tents, bedrolls, a bucket shower rigged from a tree, a cook, and camels carrying everything. It is the least comfortable night on the journey and the one every guest names first afterwards.
Every fixed property has been slept in by this office within eighteen months, in all three countries. The mobile camp and the fly-camp are ours to place, which is why they are where the animals are rather than where a road goes.
What the price covers
- Sixteen nights as described, all meals and house drinks
- One private guide for the whole route, across both borders
- Two gorilla permits per guest, plus golden monkey permits
- All flights, including both cross-border charters
- Fly-camping with camel support, staff and equipment
- Park, reserve, conservancy, crater and Olduvai fees, and the levy
- Immigration handling at both border strips by our own staff
- Specialist guides for gorilla trekking, Olduvai and Samburu walking
- Airport meet-and-greet, fast-track and day rooms in three countries
- 24-hour concierge in Nairobi, with Kigali and Arusha numbers
What it does not
- International flights, and visas for Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania
- Travel insurance — must cover altitude to 3,500m and small aircraft
- A third gorilla permit ($1,500), balloon flights in either country
- Helicopter legs, premium cellar wines, spa treatments
- Gratuities, at your discretion — porters and fly-camp staff especially
June to October only. This journey needs dry murram strips in three countries, walkable forest in Rwanda and firm ground for the fly-camping, and the crossings fall inside it. We do not sell it between November and May, and we will explain why on the telephone rather than take the booking.
Shall we hold the dates while you think?
Tell us the month and we will send a costed draft of this journey, with the camps held provisionally at no charge. A written reply within one working day, from the specialist who will run it.
On the expedition
Sixteen nights with the same guide — is that wise?
It is the single largest variable on this journey, which is why we introduce you before you confirm: a call, and his last three guests’ names if you want them. Sixteen nights with the right person is the best travel most people ever do. With the wrong one it is a long fortnight.
How fit do we need to be?
Fit enough for three hours of steep, wet climbing at 2,800 metres, and for two days of walking eight to twelve kilometres in heat. Camels carry the luggage. If either half concerns you, we can drop the fly-camping or the second gorilla trek and the journey still works.
Can it be shortened?
To thirteen nights by cutting the central Serengeti and one Samburu night. Below thirteen the three-country shape stops being sensible and we would build two countries instead — the flying starts to outweigh the ground.
How far ahead must we book?
Nine to twelve months, driven by the gorilla permits and the mobile-camp space in the northern Serengeti, both of which sell out first and neither of which can be substituted. We will hold provisionals for ten days at no cost.