The fullest trip I offer from the coast: four days in the parks, then the coast taken on properly, day by day.
Ten days let you do two whole things instead of two half things: a stretch of parks long enough to change landscape more than once, and a stretch of coast where you do not stop at the beach in front of the hotel.
It is an intense rhythm: there is something planned almost every day and more than one departure is at dawn. If you would rather have empty days in between, this outline needs lightening, and I say so beforehand rather than once the trip has started.
Day 1
No plans. You settle in, we agree the timings for the following days and you pack the small bag for the park: the large luggage stays at the property.
Days 2-5
The long part of the trip. Four days really do change the landscape: the red earth and open plains of Tsavo East, the volcanic rock and springs of Tsavo West, the open plains of Amboseli. Game drives in the good hours and overnight stops that cut out pointless moving about. Route and properties depend on availability.
Day 6
A day on the road. I get you back to the property in the afternoon and put nothing else in: after four days in the park it is needed, even by people who think it is not.
Day 7
A boat trip with mask and snorkel in the marine park, in a time slot decided by the tide. If conditions do not hold, it swaps with another day of the week.
Day 8
Transfer inland and arrival at Marafa as the sun drops: it is the hour when the sandstone canyons change colour, and it is also the only hour when walking inside them is bearable. Back in the evening.
Day 9
A morning among the ruins of Gedi (Gede) and the Arabuko-Sokoke forest. Alternatively, if you would rather be on the water, an afternoon by dhow on Mida Creek among the mangroves. We choose according to how you are holding up and to the weather.
Day 10
Nothing fixed. Some people go back to a place that worked, some stay on the coast and some simply need time before the flight. The final transfer is arranged around the real departure time.
Four days and three nights to cross the Tsavo area, the country around the Taita hills and the plains of Amboseli, without rushing any of it.
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A morning on the water between reef and lagoon, on a route adapted to the sea, the tide and what the group can manage.
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A sandbank off Watamu that surfaces only when the tide goes out, and disappears when it comes back in.
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A sandstone canyon inland from Malindi, to the north, visited in the late afternoon because that is when the walls change colour.
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A morning split between the ruins of a Swahili town and the edge of the largest coastal forest left in East Africa.
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A couple of hours on a traditional sailing boat on the creek, in the slot when the light drops. You sit, you don't paddle, and you come back in the dark.
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No off-the-shelf programme: you tell me how much time you have and what interests you, and I write you an itinerary built on that.
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Over ten days the odds of something moving are high, and that is normal. Trips at sea depend on tides and swell, the park tracks on the rains, the transfers on traffic and on gate timings. When safety requires it the programme is changed: it comes before any stop on the list.
None of this is confirmed until a written proposal reaches you with dates, verified availability, properties, price, inclusions and cancellation conditions. Before that document it remains a working outline.
Tell me how many days you actually have, where you're starting from and who you're travelling with: I'll move the stops, redo the timings and tell you what I'd cut.
