A mixture of wildlife, culture & stunning landscape this tour takes in the best of East Africa. From Africa's rift valley with its wildlife to the banks of the Nile & on to the Rainforest Gorilla's.
Travel through Kenya and Uganda visiting the famous game parks of East Africa with a maximum of 16 person in our custom built full size expedition truck. With over a metre of legroom at each seat sit back, relax and experience the wonders of the wildlife, local customs, stunning landscape and the rainforests of the last Gorilla's.
We provide the services of an expert photographer and digital download facility on all our overland tours, a unique feature making us stand out from the others!
Integrated photographic workshops and tutorials for those clients that have an interest in obtaining more memorable images than just snaps while on tour. As part of our crew we have a photographically knowledgeable guide who will provide these throughout the duration of your tour with us. Even if you are not a keen photographer we are sure that you will bring some sort of camera to Africa and therefore be in a position to capture memorable photos with us even with a point and shoot camera.
Photographic tips covered include: How a Camera Works: • Exposure: What is exposure value? We look at how a camera captures a photograph at the correct exposure and investigate the impact of hi and low key scenes • Shutter: What is shutter speed and its impact on taking photos? Using a tripod we experiment with effects gained by the use of different shutter speeds. • Aperture: What is aperture and its impact on taking photos, we look at depth of field, techniques and application • ISO: What and when to use? We talk about noise and low light scenes. Composition : • Rule of thirds: Basic principles of composition and subject placement considerations when using a grid. • Leading lines: How leading lines can be found and using them effectively in your composition. Focal points: Finding and choosing your focal point to create a photo with impact. • Framing: What you should consider when framing a shot and different techniques. • Point of view: Adjusting your point of view to create a different moods. Techniques : • Lighting: Different lighting situations, their impact on the subject and how to tackle them. • Metering: The different metering modes, how they work and how to use each one. • Flash: use of fill flash and adjusting flash output. • White balance: colour temperature and how to customise your white balance. Capturing a moment : • Colour theory: contrasting and complimentary colours and their impact on taking photos. • Story telling: more than a photo, we look at what your photo is telling the viewer using the techniques learnt on the course. • Themes & moods: Looking at the emotional impact of a photograph. Types of photography: • Macro – the small things in life. • Landscape – capturing that desert landscape or dramatic sky. • Wildlife – Capturing the wildlife of Africa • Portraiture – The people we meet along the way. • Travel – history, culture and ambiance Gear : • Lenses. • Camera Bodies. • Storage. Throughout the trip location specific workshops take place, focusing on night photography, abstract photography, panoramas, sunset/sunrise photos, textures, silhouettes, etc.
Tour price includes all highlights (inclusive activities worth £795), all ground transport except Zanzibar, all road tolls and vehicle taxes, camping and cooking equipment and services of 3 crew.
Local Payment - US$560 - Local Payment covers all food (3 meals a day - provided by our Cook) and camping fees for the whole tour. This is payable to the tourleader at the start of the tour in US dollars only.
ITINERARY
Day 1-2 Leaving Nairobi we head for the Nakuru region on the Great Rift Valley. We spend the first two nights on a large working farm not far from the small town of Nakuru and close to the Nakuru National Park. Next morning we take a full day's game drive into the Nakuru National park with a local operator with a good chance of seeing Rhino and even the elusive Leopard as well as a number of other game species. CAMPSITE
Day 3-4 The next morning we stop off in Nakuru town for a little shopping before driving north to Eldoret, spending the night at a scenic campsite just outside of town. Spend the following day exploring the local forest, giving some great photographic opportunities of the local flora. CAMPSITE
Day 5-7 Today there is a drive of about 250km crossing the border into Uganda. The border crossing can be slow but it can be an interesting experience. Once over the border we drive to Jinja, were the Nile meets Lake Victoria and we camp beside the Nile. The next two days are given over to the various activities on offer in the area. The rafting here is amongst the best in the world with several grade-five rapids providing an exhilarating experience. We also see some typical village life along the river. Alternatively there is the opportunity to visit Bujagali Falls and the Source of the White Nile, an excellent village walk, a vibrant community project known as Soft Power which supports education, quad biking or even bungy jumping! CAMPSITE
Day 8 Continuing along Lake Victoria we head for Kampala/Entebbe visiting Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Reserve on Lake Victoria, where orphaned chimpanzees have been relocated under the management of a group of dedicated conservationists, including the Jane Goodall Institute. Ngamba Island is part of the Koome group of islands located on Lake Victoria 23km south of Entebbe, Uganda. It consists of approximately 100 acres, 98 of which are forested and separated from the visitor's area by an electric fence. Ngamba Island was officially opened to visitors in October 1999 and is currently home to 45 orphaned chimpanzees, many of which have been confiscated and brought to the island since its opening. As well as viewing the chimps, we can canoe or simply relax. CAMPSITE
Day 9-10 Leaving Lake Victoria behind us we head south west ascending into the highlands heading for Lake Bunyoni. We have a day to relax here, enjoy the impressive landscape and excellent bird life at a scenic camp on the lake shore. CAMPSITE
Day 11-13 Today we head to Ruhengeri and Parc National des Volcans in Rwanda as this is the best place to see the gorillas. Our plan is for each member of the group to visit the gorillas once. It may not be possible for the group to all visit the gorillas on the same day. Owing to the nature of the terrain and the need to explore in order to find the gorillas, there are no paths to follow in Virunga and our guides will occasionally need to cut a way through the undergrowth. At times there are some steep ascents and descents over muddy slopes, so strong footwear is essential. You must expect a minimum of three hours walking to find the gorillas. Despite the challenging terrain, the jungle scenery makes the walking very interesting, and to be close to the gorillas in their natural habitat is an experience you will never forget. An adult male can weigh up to 195kg, a female up to 100kg, and a male can reach 1.7m in height. The gorillas are almost exclusively vegetarian and are quite destructive eaters, which makes them unpopular with the farmers lower down the mountain slopes, as they have been known to wreck a whole field of crops just to eat one plant. For this reason, and also because of poaching, the gorillas are very carefully protected. We can venture to within three metres of the gorilla families with reasonable safety as, in spite of their reputation; they are gentle creatures and are not known to attack unless very severely provoked. Also, we do not venture any closer because the gorillas are very susceptible to human disease - please note that anyone with a cold or any similar ailment may not be allowed near to gorillas. CAMPSITE
Day 14 Our final day we drive to Rwanda's small and attractive capital, Kigali. Rwanda is a country widely remembered for the genocide of 1994 in which over a million people were killed. There is a moving and disturbing museum that commemorates this time in their history. However, Rwanda is trying to look forward as well as back and our clients can help bring money into the area by spending time in the market here and sampling the local restaurants. Hotel - own expense.
Included highlights: Nakuru National Park all day game drive. Forest walk - Eldoret Bujagali Falls/Village Walk Soft Power Project. Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Reserve. Lake Bunyoni - Local Community visit. Gorilla Trek and permit. Kigali City tour
•In order to ensure your Gorilla and Chimpanzee trekking permits an extra deposit (£500 per person) will apply at time of booking. This additional deposit is on top of the usual £250 per person paid at time of booking and will be credited to the final balance of your booking. Please note your deposit for permits is non refundable.
Not Included: •Nile White Water rafting, Quad-biking, Bungi Jumping - Jinja. •Lake Bunyoni activities. •Activities undertaken while waiting for Gorilla Trek. •Hotel in Kigali. •Visas, travel insurance, vaccinations, flights, airport taxes, sleeping bag, pillowcase, towel, items of a personal nature, curios and alcohol. •Transfers back to Nairobi will be available at the discretion of the company and our driver.
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I had a great time. Price/quality it was a very good vlaue. In camping areas I would ask to see other bus accommadations & encourage others to look at our bus. We had much more leg room than any other bus I saw & we had spacious lockers with a safe that you could use as a comfortable foot rest.
The food was great with a fully cooked breakfast about 1/3 of the time, cold cut sandwiches & leftovers from the night before for lunch & a full cooked dinner each night with roasts & plenty of meat & vegetables. There was a vegetarian couple & many nights I would sample their delicious food offerings.
The guide was very knowledgeable about geography, animals & birds. It's a photographic safari & the guide is a skilled photographer - she gave us all a good photo CD.
We had a great journey from Livingstone to Dar es Salaam. The photographing education was helpful, especially in the safari environment. The guide, the driver and the cook did an excellent job!
While moving from one site to the next, we enjoyed the comfort of the truck very much. There was plenty of legspace, even for tall people. Well done!
My 17 year old son and I participated in the Nairobi to Nairobi 2 week adventure with in June of 2008.
It was a fantastic trip. If you want to get a feel for "true" Africa both with the animals and the people, this is a great tour. The guide is also knowledgeable in photography and gave several classes along the way to help up improve our photography.
The itinerary provided a variety of camping venues and game parks. We had enough free to time to mingle with the locals. Ifyou do get wary of sleeping in the tent and using the camp facilities, there are many opportunities to upgrade to a room with beds and bath. The cook prepared very tasty meals. The driver was excellent.
Great trip for an introduction to Africa. I am not a seasoned camper, so it takes a while to get used to it. Food was great, and the people on the tour were a good mix of seasoned travellers mostly in their 30's, however one couple in their 50's fit in just perfectly.
Sometimes the trip was more about "the group" and the setup/ activities required with setting up camp each day, and not enough time doing activities. Overall, I would recommend this trip and especially the truck, as it was the most comfortable overland truck out there ( lots of legroom).
Would recommend people bring their own mosquito nets and self inflating sleeping pads, and at least $500 USD in cash, as the ATM's in Botswana and Zambia only accept Visa-linked bankcards.
We (family of 5 (3 children) ) have just recently completed our overland tour from Nairobi to Vic Falls.
In short the whole family had a very nice, different and exciting vacation this year. Lots of new experiences and new aquaintances (There were indeed lots of highlights - nature, animals, people, food - GREAT).
The truck was overall very good (lot of space) and good comfort (apart from back seat). Some adjustments to the iternary is recommended, i.e cancel the Zomba Platau and use the three days to shorten the longest drives (e.g Arusha to Dar es Salam and Dar to Farmhouse)..
What I will stress again here is how pleased we all were with the crew. They certainly made this 4 weeks journey a most enjoyable experience. In our opinion the three guys made a very good team covering all we needed. Their behaviour, allways prepared to help and do the best out of anything, their friendliness and knowledge and what appared to us their genuine interest in the passengers was great. I can assure you that our kids (age 19, 17 and 11) are just as full of positive feedback. Give them again our thanks and regards. It was in fact sad to leave in Vic Falls.
No one knows what the future will bring, but I can assure you that we have not been scared off doing another overland trip another time. And compared to other trucks we saw, there shouldn't be any doubt that we would again choose the same company.
A fantastic truck, fitted out to a far far higher standard than the others you see on the road. A dedicated chef and knowledgeable guide, ensured that we missed out on nothing.
The library, photographic content and lectures were great and the inclusion of a best of pictures CD at the end ensures that you will have some of the best memories around.
You can recline and stretch out, look out of the windows on either side and wave to the kids on the road or just view the stunning scenery, not sit cramped in a row facing inwards at your compatriots.
You are also accompanied with sensible, mature people; not gap year students etc, living on a shoestring and the associated behaviours.
It can be a bit hard at times, but if it was easy then you would miss out on so much. You make great friends and come back a different person, changed for the better!
Highly recommended, I will be doing another trip with them, no doubt about it
We certainly did have a very enjoyable and most memorable holiday.
There were several reasons we booked with this operator: there was a cook who was part of the crew - we didn't mind helping with meals but didn't want to be responsible for shopping and cooking, as is the case with several other companies; the truck looked amazingly spacious, compared to others, and we liked the limited size of the group - 16 max but in fact we were only a group of 11 the itinerary covered several places we particularly wanted to see, including the Okavango Delta, Etosha game park and the Namibian desert
Joe was an amazing cook, producing gourmet meals on two gas burners and a camp fire, often including puddings! (His roast pumpkin with coconut and mushroom sauce had to be experienced to be believed!) And even though we did have to help with the cooking once every four days, this mainly consisted of chopping and stirring, so was never onerous.
The truck was indeed very spacious - we had ample leg room plus a large, very deep, locker in front of us for daysacks, cameras etc. on which we could also stretch our legs. The seats were reclining coach seats and we had two large windows so were amazingly comfortable. There were also overhead hatches for game park viewing but being a small person (5' 2") I only tried this once - they're fine if you're a few inches taller than that!
Our itinerary fulfilled all our expectations and provided some unexpected treasures, e.g. the afternoon spent in a Himba village. There were also optional tours available along the way which were not hugely expensive and provided even more variety - we opted for a flight over the Okavango Delta, a dolphin cruise out of Swakopmund (during which we saw a humpback whale) and an afternoon tour of the township just outside Swakopmund, which gave us another little glimpse of a very different way of life.
So to sum up: We were extremely pleased with our Southern Cross tour. The itinerary was varied and amazingly interesting, providing us with a highlight almost every day. We loved the big blue truck which offered spacious accommodation on driving days, with personal lockers (including a safe), reclining seats and ample leg room. Tents were roomy, easy to erect and dismantle, and thick foam mats made comfortable beds.
Three ample meals were provided each day, often including a cooked breakfast, fresh fruit was always available and dinners were gourmet standard every night, always with fresh vegetables and often followed by irresistible puddings.
Our guide, as well as being extremely knowledgeable and helpful, was also an expert photographer, and ran workshops on the bus on how to take the best African photographs. I don't think I'd have returned with quite as many brilliant photographs were it not for his input. We'd happily travel with them again.
we had a great trip, 6 weeks from Capetown to Nairobi, then several weeks on our own afterward.
The trip was very well run, equipment is superb, compared to others we ran into. Only 7-8 in the group with a capacity of 15 (probably hard on the operator) but great for the guests.
Camp sites were well chosen and very acceptable. The tour leader was excellent, cook and driver were above and beyond, really nice people and outstanding at their jobs.
