Wildlife & Safari Packages

Sightings are luck, but the odds are not evenly distributed. They depend on the zone you are permitted into, the hour you enter it, the season, and whether the person in the vehicle can read the alarm calls.

We book permits the morning the window opens, because the good zones at Chitwan and Bardia — and the conservancies bordering the Masai Mara — fill months ahead. We schedule the first drive at gate-opening, with breakfast packed. And we pay for a naturalist in the vehicle, which is the single biggest difference between seeing a langur and understanding why the langur is shouting.

In East Africa the same logic applies to the migration: being in the Mara in late July is not the same as being in the right conservancy in late July.