Overview
Guided by Jim Heck
August 1 – 4, 2023
$ 2,770
This classic “Dry Season Safari” is somewhat misnamed. Its highlight is the great wildebeest migration in Kenya’s Maasai Mara and the possibility of witnessing a dramatic river crossing. But the reason the million or so wildebeest are in the Mara, now, is precisely because it’s the only place in East Africa’s great big game parks where it’s still raining! The wildebeest are drawn here from all over East Africa, mostly north from the great Serengeti because those areas are now dry as a bone and the grass has stopped growing! Wildebeest eat nothing but grass. So at this time of the year Kenya’s Maasai Mara is the most productive, beautiful and exciting place in all of the continent!
With this safari, you can choose to visit Amboseli, Kenya, Tanzania or all three!
This page details the Amboseli PreTour, where you will visit Amboseli National Park under Mt. Kilimanjaro. Wildlife you may see include leopard, cheetah, wild dogs, buffalo, elephant, giraffe, zebra, lion, crocodile, mongoose, hyrax, dik-dik, lesser dudu, nocturnal porcupine and 600 species of birds.
But the main reason to visit Amboseli is the elephants. Large herds of elephants – by the dozens if not hundreds. Watching the young ones being tucked into a rapidly marching line of massive jumbos is fantastic!
No matter what the weather, Amboseli usually provides an uniform game viewing experience. This is because it is essentially a huge soda lake with emerging marshes that are fed by underground rivers coming off Mt. Kilimanjaro. So even when there is a serious dry spell on the veld, Kili never stops pumping down the water.
This page details the Amboseli tour. You can choose to visit Amboseli, Kenya, Tanzania or all three:
| 2023 | Dates | Sharing | Single | Local Air |
| Amboseli | August 1-4 | $ 2,770 | $ 3,440 | $ 0 |
| Kenya | August 4-15 | $ 9,995 | $ 11,990 | $ 820 |
| Tanzania | August 15-23 | $ 6,890 | $ 8,790 | $ 1,585 |
Jim’s been guiding safaris in Tanzania for nearly a half century. His experience and field knowledge is unmatched and his love of showing you this most amazing part of the world cannot be duplicated by anyone else. Join him on this certain trip of a lifetime!
About your guide . . . . JIM HECK
Few people know Africa as well as Jim Heck. For nearly a half century he has worked, lived and guided in Africa. His popular blog, Africa-Answerman, includes investigative journalism of some of Africa’s most critical news stories as well as anecdotes and features of daily African life. His award-winning novel, Chasm Gorge, will soon be followed by a second one, The World by Ole Kulit. His companies have organized safaris into Africa for more than 10,000 visitors including most of the country’s major zoos and conservation organizations. And in 2016 he became the first American to be named an honorary senior elder by Kenya’s Maasai tribe.Jim was the first westerner allowed to leave Addis after the Red Terror; had canoes overturned among crocs and hippos on the Zambezi; been charged by an elephant that he hit with a plate of waldorf salad; lost in the jungles of Cameroun; marooned in the Ituri Forest and rescued by Rhodesian sanction busters; and was among the few outsiders to travel through Uganda during the time of Idi Amin. Jim has never lost a client or fired a gun.
