In 1899, Halford Mackinder journeyed to the interior of East Africa, seeking the snowy heights of the continent's second highest mountain - Mount Kenya. He crossed the plains and saw an Africa that for most people today is a fantasy locked in the yellowed pages of history.

"What a beautiful mountain Kenya is, graceful, not stern, but as it seems to me with a cold feminine beauty. The head of the Teleki Valley with its ruddy cliffs, edged and lined with snow or hail, appears more beautiful in tonight's sunset than ever before. Suddenly the sun must have sunk below the horizon, for the glow went and the whole scene chilled in a moment to an arctic landscape."  Halford Mackinder, Geographical Journal, Vol. XV. 1900






Tropical Ice started on Mount Kenya 28 years ago - we took our name from the mountain, and wrote the official guidebook. Join our Great Escape on a 100 year-old safari. Most great mountains have suffered the invasion of thousands of human feet and their natural beauty has paid the price. We are fortunate that Kilimanjaro has long attracted the crowds, leaving Mount Kenya pristine for the discerning traveler.

In his autobiography, Eric Shipton, the 20th Century's most accomplished Himalayan explorer, wrote :"I was enchanted by this lovely mountain (Mount Kenya), and consumed by an aching desire to reach it ...sometimes the clouds would drift away from the west to reveal the peaks already golden in the sunset glow, shreds of rose-tinted mist clinging to their sides" That Untravelled World, 1969.

Mount Kenya

The most spectacular trekking in Africa exists on Mount Kenya: seldom trodden valleys and gorges, mountain lakes, prehistoric alpine vegetation, and dense equatorial rain forest, rich in mammal life combine to make Mount Kenya Africa's most important mountain. To reach the highest summit requires technical skills, but the views from the summit of Point Lenana are as breathtaking as those from the nearby technical highest point. Tropical Ice's six-day trek across the eastern moorlands, and the Nithi Gorge, to the summit of Point Lenana (16,355 feet) takes us through the lower equatorial rain forest, over gently rising moorlands to a world of high tarns and glaciers.

Shaba National Reserve

Shaba is a little-visited park in Samburuland, which was the home of Joy Adamson, author of “Born Free”, where in the last years of her life she was involved in a leopard rehabilitation study. The palm-fringed Uasin Nyiro River flows through this dramatic landscape of acacia, desert, rock and emerald marshes – it is one of the most beautiful regions in Kenya. Shaba is home to large herds of elephant, Cape buffalo, Beisa oryx, Reticulated Giraffe, and the rare desert species of Grevy’s Zebra. There are predators aplenty, in the form of lion, cheetah, Striped hyena, and leopards, who hide in the caves of the many rocky buffs and domes.

From our private camp we will explore the gorges and riverine forest on foot. Tropical Ice has a 28 year history of walking safaris throughout Kenya's wilderness. You'll have a chance to experience true Africa on a foot safari: using trackers. wind direction, and landscape, we quietly approach game, observe it, photograph and leave the wildlife undisturbed.

Maasai Mara

One of Africa's leading wildlife photographers, Jonathan Scott remarked that if he only had twenty-four hours to spend on the African continent it would be in the Maasai Mara. We see no reason to doubt him. The Mara, which is the northern extension of the Serengeti, is home to the great herds of Africa.

Characterized by rolling grasslands as far as one can see, these plains are roamed by huge numbers of wildebeest, zebra, eland and Thomson’s gazelle. The great wildebeest migration is a wonder of the world; half a million animals and their attendant predators: lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena.

Tropical Ice's private camp is in a secluded forest grove surrounded by grassy plains, and the wildlife is at our doorstep. We game-drive the entire region of the Maasai Mara, and frequently get out on foot too. The evening campfire and the sounds of the night will remain in your memory for the rest of your life.

MAXIMUM 8 PEOPLE

2008 DEPARTURE DATES:

February 17 (Arrive Nairobi) - March 1 (Evening departure)

October 5 (Arrive Nairobi) - 18 (Evening departure)

Please note: if the dates above do not suit your schedule, we can easily customise departure dates for groups of four or more people.