Rural Life Trip

Experience the living beating heart of Africa

Want a real flavour of rural Kenyan life, along with some thrilling adventure in one of the wildest, most beautiful parts of East Africa? And you’d like to make a real difference to local lives? Then this is the trip for your school, with the flexibility for students to lead and design their own itineraries. You can study fascinating traditions, rituals and bush skills, view wildlife including the ‘Big 5’ – lion, rhino, leopard, buffalo and elephant, explore white water rapids and sleep under a star-filled sky in the wilderness. And intermixed with all the excitement is Rift Valley Adventures unique Schools for Communities projects, where you help out with building work or conservation schemes to make a lasting impression on the remote, welcoming Laikipiak Maasai communities. Now it’s time for Mount Kenya with snowfields and glaciers sitting directly on the equator! We’ll climb one of the peaks at sunrise, an experience that’ll leave you on top of the world, before coming back down to earth for mountain biking, abseiling, rafting and safaris for lion rhino, elephant and leopard.

You’ve just experienced the living, beating, breathing heart of Africa. You will return. We just know it!

Suggested 22 day Programme

Day 1: To Nairobi

Transfer to Ol Gaboli Community Lodge in Laikipia. Relax and recover!

Day 2/3: Orientation Days

Get an insight into Kikuyu and Laikipiak Maasai culture with a visit to a manyatta – a typical timber and cattle dung home.
Today and tomorrow you’ll grasp the basics of Swahili and Maasai languages, learn about their traditions, mythology, hunting methods and dances, along with bush skills such as spear throwing and animal tracking.
You’ll also get to grips with some very unusual bush food and plant life, including the toothbrush and deodorant trees! Feeling creative? Then learn about the tribe member’s mesmerizing local jewellery and make your own beaded bracelet.

Day 4 – 10: School for Communities Project

The group can choose what they would like to do (see projects above). This may be staying at the lodge or our Mt. Kenya forest camp or fly camping in a remote area of Laikipia, but it will mean hard work for all!

Day 11: Relax, Adventure or Safari

You choose, a game drive through the nearby ranches, relaxing at camp or visiting the local village.

Day 12: Mount Kenya – First steps

A short transfer from Ol Gaboli lodge brings us to our mountain camp where we slowly acclimatise to the new altitude. In the afternoon we take a short walk to stretch the legs and get us ready for tomorrows hike.

Day 13: West Marania Camp

We navigate the high altitude West Marania road head over open heath land, well away from main routes. Walking slowly to acclimatise, we camp by a stunning mountain stream.

Day 14: ‘Good Campsite’ tarn

A short six-hour day with a 500-metre ascent that allows time to explore a pristine mountain area and maybe catch a large trout supper from the tarn!

Day 15: Hanging Tarn camp

Eight hours hiking takes us to the base of the old volcanic plug that makes up the rocky peaks of Batian, Nelion and Pt.Lenana. Be prepared for the vegetation to change to moorland grass with amazing giant lobelia and senecio.

Day 16: Pt. Lenana Peak!

Get set for a 2am start on the Summit Circuit Path with amazing views, tarns, glaciers, ice sculpted rocks formations and precipitous valleys. We reach the 4,985-metre peak for a sunrise celebration and incredible views to the Aberdare Ranges and Mt Kilimanjaro. After a celebratory cup of tea we descend for a scenic breakfast beneath the peaks of Batian and Nelion and our 2,135-metre descent to Old Moses Camp.

Day 17: Back to Ol Gaboli lodge

A more leisurely walk through towering Podocarpus and Cedar forest, and game drive en-route back to the Il Motiok lodge.

Day 18: Rest Day

A day to sleep and recover from the highs of Mt. Kenya. Why not go for a game drive?

Day 19: Mountain Bike and Climb

Recovering from the high altitude exertions, we take a leisurely cycle through neighbouring ranches to Camel Hump rocks for climbing and abseiling, with superb views over to the glaciers of Mount Kenya.

Day 20: Rafting and overnight camp

Using three-main inflatable rafts, we take a thrilling spin down the Ewaso Nyiro river’s grade two rapids. We’ll pass stunning river rocky valleys and Laikipiak Maasai villages before pitching camp under the star-coated sky for a memorable riverbank barbecue.Day 21: Ol Pejeta, local markets & beading workshops
Ol Pejeta Wildlife Sanctuary is the trip’s best chance to spot all the ‘Big 5’ – lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo – and visit the famous chimpanzees. After an afternoon’s retail therapy at local markets near Nanyuki, we have an evening beading workshop at Ol Gaboli.

Day 22: To Nairobi to catch international flight home