Sleep above the waterhole.

Thirteen thousand square kilometres of wild Kenya, and by mid-morning you are already in the middle of it — watching dust-red elephants come down to the water.

• 07:00Pick-up from your hotel. Your private guide, your own Land Cruiser, your window seat.
• 09:00Enter Tsavo East and begin a morning game drive across the open plains.
• 13:00Lunch at Ashnil Aruba Lodge, overlooking the Aruba Dam and everything that comes to drink.
• 15:30Afternoon game drive — Yatta Plateau country, lion, buffalo, waterbuck, 500 bird species.
• 19:30Dinner and overnight at Ashnil Aruba Lodge.

One of the most photographed lodges on earth. Cottages on stilts above a waterhole, joined by walkways, with a tunnel that takes you down to the animals' own eye level.

• 06:00Tea or coffee, then a first-light game drive while the plains are still cool.
• 08:00Full breakfast, check out, and cross into the 28,000-acre Taita Hills Sanctuary.
• MiddayMid-morning game drive, then lunch at Taita Hills Safari Resort & Spa.
• 15:30Evening game drive in the sanctuary as the light turns gold.
• 18:30Back to the lodge for dinner and overnight at Salt Lick Safari Lodge.

The best sighting of the trip is often the last one. Then the road turns east and the air starts smelling of the ocean.

• 06:00Tea or coffee and a snack, then a morning game drive at 06:30 to 8am.
• 08:00Full breakfast at the lodge, with time to rest and take it all in.
• 09:00Start the drive back to Watamu, with the coast waiting at the end of the road.
• 17:00Arrival back at your hotel on the Kenya coast.