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Pregnant lioness at dawn, Masai Mara, Kenya

Africa

Masai Mara Safari with Brian Jackman

EXPERT-LED GROUP TOUR

Departure date	Duration	Prices Start from	Tour Expert	Max Group Size	Status
06/14/20	7 Days	$7,614 ex. flights	Brian Jackman	6	AVAILABLE	Reserve your place

Experience a Masai Mara safari in the company of Brian Jackman, who has spent his life bringing this wild landscape to life through his writing. There are few better people to explore the Mara with, searching for its prowling lion prides, surging wildebeest herds and languorous journeys of giraffes.

Brian on the Masai Mara:

“It is hard to believe now, but few people had even heard of the Masai Mara until 1977. The Serengeti was where you went if you wanted to see lions, but tourism in the Mara was in its infancy.

“Those were the days when you could drive all the way from the Musiara Gate to the Serengeti border with only the ruts of old tyre tracks to indicate the outside world had come this far. And to look out across its rolling plains from the top of the Oloololo Escarpment was to stand at the gates of heaven.”

Brian Jackman

1 855 2037885

Brian Jackman is an award-winning journalist and author with a lifelong passion for travel and wildlife. For 20 years he worked for The Sunday Times, during which time he was voted Travel Writer of the Year in 1982.

Today most of his work appears in The Daily Telegraph, but also appears in The Sunday Times, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Travel Africa, Country Living and Conde Nast Traveller, where he is a contributing editor. Although his travels have taken him around the world, he is best known as Britain’s foremost writer on African wildlife safaris, and has spent more than three years in total under canvas in the bush.

View Brian Jackman's full profile

Key Highlights of this Itinerary

Brian Jackman

Travel in the company of renowned wildlife writer and Kenya aficionado Brian Jackman

Prides of Lions

Track the descendants of the iconic Marsh Pride across the Masai Mara’s plains

Private Conservancy

Stay in the Mara North Conservancy, away from the crowds but packed with wildlife

Sundowner, Kicheche Bush Camp, Masai Mara

Expert Guiding

Benefit from some of the best guiding in Kenya at Kicheche Mara Camp

This group tour can be arranged on a tailor made basis, contact us for more information

Speak to our experts

Explore our suggested itinerary

Day 1
Nairobi - Masai Mara
Days 2 - 6
Masai Mara
Day 7
Masai Mara - Nairobi

Brian Jackman

“If I add up all the nights I have slept under canvas,” he says, “I must have spent at least two years of my life in the bush.” His books on Africa include The Marsh Lions, The Big Cat Diary (with Jonathan Scott), and Roaring at the Dawn. He also edited My Serengeti Years by Myles Turner and Battle for the Elephants by Iain and Oria Douglas-Hamilton.

Through his friendship with the late George Adamson, he became a trustee of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust and he is also a patron of Tusk Trust. Today he writes mostly for The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph. His favourite places? “Anywhere you can watch big cats,” he says.

Renowned Writer

“Brian Jackman is a passionate but unsentimental conservationist who lives surrounded by reminders of what’s gone before. He writes with relish for the experience he is recalling and for the language in which he sets it down. His prose is clean and uncluttered, his sense of history acute.”

– The Sunday Times

Mara North - Private Conservancy

Explore the Mara North Conservancy, as well as the Masai Mara National Reserve. With the freedom afforded by having a private vehicle and guide, spend as much time out and tracking wildlife as possible. Get up early to make the most of the beautiful dawn light, either returning to the camp during the heat of the day or spending all day out searching for predators and prey.

The Mara North Conservancy, with its limited number of camps, offers far greater isolation, as well as flexibility, with off-road driving allowed. The wildlife found here is exceptional, with no fences between the conservancy and the reserve. Look out for elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras and countless antelopes.

Kicheche Mara Camp

The lack of other tourists and abundance of game around Kicheche Mara Camp keep clients coming back year after year. Such is the quality of the wildlife experience that this camp is the first choice for many experienced safari-goers and wildlife photographers.

All of the guides have superb knowledge of the area, which means they have an uncanny knack for getting you in the right place at the right time. All qualified to Kenya’s renowned “silver level”, they are intuitive in their approach to guiding.

What Happens on a Typical Day?

It would be against the ethos of this trip to set in stone, a day-by-day itinerary. Clinical schedules are counterproductive, as they do not allow for the capricious nature of wildlife. On this trip, the approach will be reactive, allowing the wildlife to dictate the schedule.

For example, if you arrive at camp and hear from the guides that a cheetah with cubs has been seen close by, you know the focus for the following day’s safari will be on getting magnificent photographs of cheetahs. Likewise, if you hear that the local pride has been active on the nearby plains, the safari will stay closer to home as looking for signs of these lions.

Includes / Excludes

Important Information

Activity Level

Light Activity

Single Supplement

Travelling on your own? Our group tours are perfect for solo travellers, as travelling as part of an organised group in faraway places provides security and peace of mind. We handle all of the arrangements for you and there will be a local tour guide on hand throughout to provide advice and help if needed, as well as the expertise of a Tour expert.

Flexibility

To allow flexibility, our group tours do not include international flights as standard. We can arrange international flights on your behalf and the above is an indication of the cost, based on return flights departing from London. All international flights from the UK are ATOL protected.

What is included

Brian Jackman's company throughout
6 nights' accommodation at Kicheche Mara Camp on a full-board basis
Game drives and walks at Kicheche Mara Camp
All guiding
All park fees
Internal flights
Private vehicle at Kicheche Mara Camp

What is excluded

International Flights
Additional accommodation in Nairobi
Items of a personal nature
Travel Insurance
Visa

Accommodation

Below you can see some of the wonderful places we recommend you stay on your journey.

Kicheche Mara Camp £££££

Kenya
Safari and Wildlife Lodge
Tented Camps

Kicheche Mara Camp is a tried, tested and loved classic bush camp in the award-winning Mara North Conservancy – one of the best wildlife viewing spots in the Mara. The 8 canvas rooms overlook the Olare Orok stream and the western escarpment in the distance, with the camp sitting in the aptly named Acacia Valley. Western-style en-suite bathrooms, hot showers and soft beds keep you comfortable, whilst the team create a wonderful sense of fun. Lively dinners around the campfire or under the shade of the acacia trees keep the excitement going long after the game drives are over.

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Why a Steppes expert-led group tour

1.Experience Matters

We have been running insightful and groundbreaking group tours since our inception in 1989. We have worked with institutions such as the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum and run wildlife tours in conjunction with conservation agencies such as Fauna & Flora International, Wildlife Conservation Society, the Orangutan Foundation, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and the Jane Goodall Institute.

2.Size Matters

Our average group size is typically eight to ten people, smaller than other group tours typically offered – a factor which many of our clients appreciate. Travelling as part of a smaller group provides a more intimate, personalised and relaxed atmosphere.

4.It’s about who you know

We have developed an enviable pool of expertise from which to choose our tour experts, who we carefully select based on their knowledge, companionship and personality. Often, these experts can use their influence to facilitate private access to sites not typically open to the public.

3.Like-Minded People

Steppes Travellers are like-minded people – interesting, interested and curious. Our group tours aim to create an easy and informal atmosphere – we have a lot of fun on our tours and many friendships have been formed.

5.Value for money

Our tours are well-priced to ensure you get real value for money. We include gratuities on the majority of our tours and do not pass on currency surcharges. We strive to look after single travellers as well as we can, keeping single supplements to a minimum.

6.Peace of Mind

When you travel on one of our group tours, you will be looked after by our local agents and your tour expert with the back-up of our 24-hour emergency number and duty manager. All our holidays are fully bonded and protected – our ATOL number is ATOL 6495.

Our future tour dates

For further information about any of these tours please call 1 855 2037885

Departure date	Duration	Prices Start from	Tour Expert	Max Group Size	Status
06/14/20	7 Days	$7,614 ex. flights	Brian Jackman	6	AVAILABLE	Reserve your place

Reserve your place on this group tour

Our travel experts have a wealth of first-hand knowledge, so if you have any questions about this escorted tour get in touch. They would love to help.

01285 601 784

We look forward to you joining us on this tour.

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Why Choose Steppes?

Our knowledge and expertise sets us apart. So too our curiosity. A curiosity of the world and of you, and your passions. It is this that drives us to create a journey that is really bespoke to you.

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