CYCLING, WALKING, RUNNING & CLIMBING SAFARIS:

A) BIKE TREKS,

Bike Treks, the premier ground handler for cycling and walking safaris has been guiding visitors since 1990 to their “Olperr Elongo Camp” in the Mara and on cycling, walking, climbing and camping expeditions.

 “Olperr Elongo Camp” is approx 225kms due west from Nairobi, 45 minutes by scheduled twice daily flights and 4.5 hours by road; situated on the northern boundary of the Masai Mara Game Reserve beside the Sekenani River.

 The various safari itineraries are concentrated in various areas of Kenya:

v       cycling programmes include the floor of the Rift Valley, the Loita area around the Mara and areas towards Ol Koroi on the Tanzanian border comprising rolling plains and forested hills.

v       climbing Mt Kenya following Sirimon, Naro Moru and Chogoria routes.

v       marathon running is situated around the hills south of Kajiado.  Separately, running with Kenya’s elite atheletes can also be arranged.

v       walking into and across the Nguruman Mountain range; in, around and across the plains from Barakitabu to Siana.

v       cultural exchanges are a natural part of all our experiences when walking, cycling and staying at Olperr Elongo – this is because the people guiding and accompanying you are local Kenyans.

The aim is to give our clients a chance to experience the outdoors through the various activities offered. These activities are all accompanied by qualified guides/ naturalists who have many years of experience in the discipline they are guiding and an understanding for the need for safety; the clients wish to get a real feeling for surroundings; the peoples and their culture and of course to ensure that services offered are of a high quality.

 Activities are tailor made to suit the physical abilities of clients with distances to cater to the individuals abilities and where possible these activities including riding, walking, marathon running have backup. Normally activities comprise 4 – 5 hours daily in the case of cycling, walking, mountain trekking and walking with camels; marathon running depends largely on distances covered but vary between 20 minutes for a short bush run to 2.5 hours for longer marathons.

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B) WALKING SAFARIS

The Loita Hills are one of Kenya's last remaining 'true wilderness' areas. There are no roads, tracks or footpaths, and the likelihood of our seeing anyone else on the trek is remote. Indeed our only other companions will be the wild game that inhabits the grasslands and mountain forests of this remote region. Where appropriate, we will be walking along game trails and in the late afternoons may move from the ridge tops, down into the valley in search of suitable campsites.

Nights are generally spent camped next to cool streams that rise in these hills and on leaving the next morning, the only evidence of our passing should be a small circle of ash and a few fire blackened rocks marking the place we had the camp fire and cooked the evening meal.

Starting at an Altitude of about 2,200m, we walk, carrying all our own food and camping equipment, east, through Savannah grasslands, climbing as we do so to about 2,400m. At some point we will enter the "mist forests" of the central area. These forests are sustained by the ability of the trees, bushes, lichens and mosses to extract moisture from the clouds that cloak the whole region most mornings. Underfoot the ground is moist and springy with slowly decaying vegetation, whilst above us, the forest trees provide a haven for monkeys, turaco and other forest birds seen but seldom elsewhere.

The weight carried by each client on the first day is about 20 kg, with packs becoming lighter each day as food is eaten, to end at around 10kg on the last day of the walk. Total distance covered - about 45 kilometres.

Of the forest mammals, the most conspicuous will be the beautiful black and white Colobus monkeys, but troops of Sykes and Vervet monkey will add their alarm cries to those of the Crowned Eagles, and other birds which fly within the forest. With luck, we may encounter those silent giants of Africa - the Elephant, but more probably the only evidence of their presence will be their spoor and droppings together with those of Buffalo, forest Antelope, and more rarely, Lion, Leopard and Hyena.

During the walk, because of the unspoilt virgin nature of the wilderness, we try to take a different route on each expedition. This implies that the terrain conditions are generally unknown and may vary considerably during each day, with good game trails being followed for a couple of hours, succeeded by areas of seemingly impenetrable jungle. Here progress may be difficult with giant nettles, vines and lianas and thorns adding to the challenges of the walk. Navigation is by use of map, compass and altimeter, and a portable VHF airway band radio is carried for use in any possible emergency.

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SAMPLE OF A WALKING SAFARI

(Also possible in Chuyulu Hills, Ngorongoro, Mpakai and Lake Natron…):

Day 1:  From Nairobi, a three hour drive westwards, brings us to the township of Narok. Here we will have a snack lunch and a drink before continuing for another two hours to the upper grassland plateau of the Loita Hills. Our walk starts from near the Masaai village of Morijo, and from here we will walk east and then south for about 3 hours till we reach a suitable campsite by a permanent stream. Dinner, as on each subsequent night, will be cooked over an open camp fire.

Day 2:  After an early breakfast we cut up the east side of the valley and so into the start of the forests proper. Game trails are followed when ever possible. Note: because we use a different route through the forest each time, the difficulty of the terrain we will be crossing will not be known from one kilometre to the next. This night's camp is made after a long drop into one of the valleys. Alternatively your guide and one volunteer will drop down into the valley to collect the night's water requirements whilst the camp is set up on the ridge top.

Day 3:  Still in the forests for a couple of hours, often