East Africa Cultural Tour And Volunteering

Below is a sample itinerary of a past Goway Group. It is provided to give you an idea of what we have already done & what you might also consider doing.

However, because of timing, your own group's special interests and budget, we expect to custom make a program just for you. Contact your favorite travel agent click on "Inquire about this Trip" to fill out a request for a group quotation.

Lodge Information:

Intercontinental hotel:

The popular Inter-continental is an ideal business cum leisure hotel offering high international standards of service and accommodation that are the hallmark of all Inter-continental hotels worldwide. Overlooking the city, the Nairobi Uhuru Gardens and the Kenyan Parliament, it is only 10 minutes walk minutes from the city centre and 20 minutes from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The hotel offers tastefully decorated rooms, excellent restaurants, conference and meeting rooms, shops, swimming pool, casino and a host of other facilities.

Kigio Wildlife Camp:

Kigio Wildlife Camp is a superb all-suite camp built within Yellow-fever woodland overlooking the Malewa River. The camp is built from sustainable pinewood, local soil from the conservancy, traditional thatch provided by the surrounding community and canvas panels - there has been minimal usage of cement and steel in the construction of the camp. Power is provided by solar panels and the environment has been carefully preserved during the construction of the camp. Accommodation is in eleven spacious suites, each 72 sq-metre and one 2-bedroom suite all built on deck and containing a large bedroom, a separate sitting room that opens up at the front and a private bathroom with flush loo and shower. The dining and sitting areas are in an open glade overlooking a cliff that houses a colony of bee-eaters. A most attractive bar sits between two towering indigenous fig trees facing the cliff. Wholesome meals are cooked using gas and eco-bricks and ingredients are sourced daily from local communities and farmers. Activities that are possible include nature walks with rangers, day and night game drives, fishing, biking and bush meals. Kigio Wildlife Camp offers some of the highest standards of accommodation in East Africa in glorious surroundings and at the same time instills a genuine concern for the environment and community. A minimum of 2 nights stay is recommended to enjoy the beautiful natural surroundings and the camp.

The Fairmont Ark:

Set in the heart of the Aberdare National Park, this unique game lodge overlooks a floodlit waterhole and salt lick which attracts a host of wildlife: elephant; rhino; leopard; bushbuck and occasionally an elusive bongo or giant forest hog.

Resembling, and named after, Noah's Ark, the Ark comprises three decks from which numerous balconies and lounges provide superb vantage points for game viewing. A ground-level bunker provides excellent photographic opportunities and takes you closer than you would believe possible to the animals.

Comfortable en suite cabins are fitted with buzzers to announce the arrival of one of the "Big Five" at the water hole. Before embarking on the half-hour drive to The Ark, lunch is served at the charming Aberdare Country Club. Dinner and breakfast are served "on board"!

Parks & Reserves Information

Kigio Wildlife Conservancy: 
Kigio Wildlife Conservancy is a noteworthy 3,500-acre wildlife conservancy between Nakuru and Naivasha and only 90 minutes drive from Nairobi. The Conservancy with its wide-ranging habitats, from riverine and euphorbia forests to short grass and shrub, holds approximately 3,500 heads of wildlife (including the endangered White Rhino and Rothschild Giraffe, a 200 strong herd of buffalo, impala, Grants and Thomson’s gazelle, Eland, hyena, leopard, hippo) which are protected by an electric fence on three sides and the Malewa River on one side. The Conservancy’s rich bio-diversity which also supports over 200 species of birds and large bee-eater colonies has been recognized internationally by Tusk Trust, Born Free Trust and several individual donors who have provided funds to fence and improve the infrastructure around the conservancy, help local communities and schools in the area and create direct and indirect employment from the area. The Conservancy is at the forefront of Eco-tourism in the Rift Valley lakes area. Accommodation in Kigio Wildlife Conservancy is available at 2 stunning properties - Kigio Wildlife Camp and Malewa Wildlife Lodge

Lake Nakuru National Park: 

Originally declared a national park because of a superbly diverse bird population, which includes many migrants, the park is also a favorite place for travellers to seek the rare black rhino. However, it is for the flamingos that the lake is best known, and it was for their protection that the park was originally created. The level of the blue-green alkaline waters here varies and this, with other accompanying environmental changes, causes considerable variation in the flamingo population, but when they are present, en masse, the whole lake turns a gorgeous rosy pink.

Although protection of the flamingo population on the lake was the original rationale for the inception of the national park, further land was included in the early seventies and it is now about 190 sq m. This expansion, which took in a large grassland area, has allowed the park to protect further species. Buffalo, zebra, antelope and both lion and leopard are to be found. The rather less ubiquitous reedbuck and waterbuck are also here as is the glamorously leggy Rothschild giraffe. Temptingly, the black rhino breeding program, started in the late eighties, has proved successful and this is an excellent place to view them.

Lake Nakuru is a small national park. There is no need to stay in the area in order to see all that is to be seen. A good day trip may be enough and these can easily be organized from the Lake Naivasha area.

Samburu & Buffalo Springs National Reserves:

Samburu is different from many of the other frequently visited areas. This forty square miles of the reserve is not the oft-seen Kenyan landscape of savannah and flat-topped acacias, but harsh, dramatic terrain. The people from this area, the Samburu, are similarly dramatic to the outsider. Dressed in bright red, with their braided hair and skin daubed with red ochre, the "moran", the youthful warriors of the Samburu almost always spear-in-hand, are a wonderful sight.

The permanent water supply of the Uaso Nyiro River is what attracts the game to Samburu. Much of the reserve is arid, hilly landscape but riverine forest fringes the river banks and there are doum palms, the fruit of which is a great favourite with elephants. Crocodiles lie quietly in the mud and it is here that you will find abundant birdlife, including palm eagles, storks, hornbills, bee-eaters and plenty of weaver birds. 
Some species in the area are specially adapted to the arid environment and are particularly northern - the magnificent oryx, for example, and the gerenuk, a rather odd-looking long-necked gazelle that can stretch up to reach the lower branches of the thorn trees. You will also find Grevy's Zebra, larger than the more commonly seen Burchell's zebra, and reticulated giraffe, with their irregular, netted pattern of white. Desert lions are found here, leopards can be seen, and the ostrich (Ethiopian) have blue legs! Elephant wander, browsing in family groups.

Buffalo Springs has the Uaso Nyiro River as its northern boundary, and thus may almost be seen as an extension of Samburu Reserve, which is bounded in the south by the river. The game here is the same as Samburu, but here there is more marsh land and the large pools from the springs themselves. You may cross from one reserve to the other via a bridge over the river.

Samburu and Buffalo Springs are becoming more sought after as a wildlife destination. They are only a couple of hundred miles from Nairobi and thus an easy hop on the light aircraft that fly from Wilson Airport, which itself is just outside Nairobi. In addition, the harsh beauty of the landscape is compelling.

Aberdare National Park:

Probably the highest national park in the world, Aberdare is all above 7,000 feet. The habitat of the Aberdare Mountains, like that of Mount Kenya which is on the other side of the Laikipia Plains, ranges from the forest and thick bamboo to open moorland. Breathtaking waterfalls, brightly coloured birds, soaring raptors, a fascinating and diverse plant world and gorgeous scenery make this national park both lovely and intriguing.

This is the area for those who are keen to fish. The trout here were introduced in 1906 by a certain Captain Grogan and the fishing, in rivers such as the Naro Moru, the Thego and the Chania is renowned. The Aberdares are also remembered as the guerilla base of Kenyan heroes during their war for independence from the British. Established as a national park in 1950, Aberdare lies around two high peaks, Kinangop and Lesatima, with almost 50 kilometres of high moors stretching mistily between them.
The scenery here is stunning and the waterfalls particularly dramatic - the Gura Falls plunge and foam down the side of a 1500-foot rock face. Some of the indigenous wildlife in the Aberdares is equally as stunning. Melanistic black leopard, serval and genet can be found here, but are both shy and rare. Large numbers of buffalo, a few rhinos, elephants, Colubus monkeys, bush pigs and warthog may be found in the forests. It is said that the elephant still remember the bombing raids by the British during the war for independence, and is thus extremely suspicious of mankind. The birding is excellent. Brightly coloured parrots, francolin, the strutting secretary bird and green ibis are among the species here. Sunbirds enjoy the open moors and raptors such as the rufous sparrowhawk, goshawk, buzzards and the crowned eagle scour the moors for prey.

The Aberdares even has a Hollywood connection. This is where the film "Gorillas in the Mist", starring Sigourney Weaver, was made. The renowned naturalist studied the mountain gorillas of Rwanda and was murdered there. Perhaps even more famously, although rather long ago, it was to Treetops, that the news of her father's death, and her accession to the throne, was brought to the then Princess Elizabeth.

Kigio Wildlife Conservancy:

Kigio Wildlife Conservancy is a noteworthy 3,500-acre wildlife conservancy between Nakuru and Naivasha and only 90 minutes drive from Nairobi. The Conservancy with its wide-ranging habitats, from riverine and euphorbia forests to short grass and shrub, holds approximately 3,500 heads of wildlife (including the endangered White Rhino and Rothschild Giraffe, a 200 strong herd of buffalo, impala, Grants and Thomson’s gazelle, Eland, hyena, leopard, hippo) which are protected by an electric fence on three sides and the Malewa River on one side. The Conservancy’s rich bio-diversity which also supports over 200 species of birds and large bee-eater colonies has been recognized internationally by Tusk Trust, Born Free Trust and several individual donors who have provided funds to fence and improve the infrastructure around the conservancy, help local communities and schools in the area and create direct and indirect employment from the area. The Conservancy is at the forefront of Eco-tourism in the Rift Valley lakes area. Accommodation in Kigio Wildlife Conservancy is available at 2 stunning properties - Kigio Wildlife Camp and Malewa Wildlife Lodge.

Masai Mara National G.R 

Probably the most famous of the reserves, the Masai Mara, in Kenya's south western corner, boasts an astonishing amount of game. Unfenced, the Mara is bounded in the east by the Ngama Hills and in the west by the Oloololo or Siria Escarpment. Gazelle, wildebeest and zebra graze in large numbers and where prey is found so are predators. Not only is this a great place in which to find game, but the wide greeny-gold savannahs spotted with thorn trees make it ideal for photography. The Mara, as it is known in Kenya, is ravishingly beautiful and also offers long, undisturbed views and utterly dramatic panoramas. The weather really means something here. The sun may beat down unforgivingly, huge clouds in fabulous shapes may sweep across the widest of skies, and the wind ripples the grasses as though they are stroked by a giant hand. The landscape is stunning.

The famously black-maned Mara lions are possibly the stars of the Mara show, but cheetah, elephant, kongoni, topi, Thompson's gazelle, waterbuck, hyena, and primates are all here too. As with the rest of Kenya, the birding is good. There is no settlement within the reserve however; the Mara is in theory owned by the Maasai, pastoralists and, in earlier times, renowned lion-killers. Lodges and hotels offer the opportunity to buy their beadwork, checked cloths and copies of their spears. It is said that if lions scent approaching Maasai on the breeze they move swiftly in the opposite direction.

Famously, the Mara is the northerly end of the Great Migration, that great primeval surge of wildebeest, zebra and antelope that sweeps in from Tanzania’s Serengeti to Kenya's Masai Mara as the Tanzanian grass starts to fail. They are tracked by the large predators that pick off the weak, the stragglers and the young. The great herds, nearing their destination by July, mass along the Mara River, pushing, shoving and fantastically noisy, just waiting for the first animal to cross so that they can all follow, lemming-like, on the final leg of the journey. However, crocodiles lie in wait, sluggishly cruising the waters, fully prepared for their best meal of the year. Many fail in the life-and-death struggle - drowned, eaten by the crocodiles or, made careless or weak by their stressful swim, brought down by lions. The Masai Mara is dramatic, wonderful, and not to be missed.