4-Day Masai Mara Group Safari from Mombasa | SGR Train & Big Five

6:00 AM — Hotel pickup from your Mombasa or Diani Beach hotel and transfer to Mombasa Terminus SGR station.

8:00 AM — Board the **SGR Madaraka Express** — Kenya's modern standard gauge railway. The 5-hour journey from coast to capital is an experience in itself. Watch the landscape transform outside your window — palm-fringed coastline gives way to the dry bushlands of Tsavo (you'll spot wildlife from the train!), then rises into the green highlands approaching Nairobi.

1:00 PM — Arrive at Nairobi Terminus. Your C.A.T.S guide meets you with a shared 4×4 Land Cruiser. Lunch in Nairobi, then begin the drive northwest toward the Masai Mara.

The route passes through the Great Rift Valley — stop at the viewpoint for panoramic photos across the valley floor, 600 metres below. Descend through the Narok wheat fields as the sun drops lower, painting the Mara escarpment gold.

6:30 PM — Arrive at your camp on the edge of the Masai Mara. Dinner under the stars, the distant whooping of hyenas marking the beginning of your Mara adventure.

6:00 AM — Dawn game drive into the Masai Mara's golden plains. The early light catches the dew on the grass as your guide navigates toward the Mara River. **Lion prides** are most active at dawn — mothers returning from nocturnal hunts, cubs tumbling over sleeping males, the whole drama of the savannah unfolding before your window.

The Mara Triangle offers Kenya's densest concentration of predators. Your morning circuit targets **leopard** territory along the Talek River — these elusive cats drape themselves over acacia branches, their spotted coats perfectly camouflaged. Cheetah scan the open plains from termite mounds, and hyena clans patrol kill sites.

10:00 AM — Drive to the **Mara River** — site of the Great Migration crossings (July–October). Even outside migration season, the river teems with life: massive Nile crocodiles, hippo pods 50-strong, and herds of zebra and wildebeest grazing the riverine grasslands.

12:30 PM — Lunch at a scenic bush site overlooking the Mara plains. Vultures circle overhead. A herd of **elephants** passes in the middle distance, their matriarch leading the family toward water.

Afternoon game drive focuses on the central plains and the Oloololo escarpment. **Buffalo** herds — sometimes 500+ strong — move like dark rivers across the green savannah. Giraffe browse the scattered yellow fever trees. With luck, your guide spots a **rhino** in the thickets — completing the Big Five.

5:30 PM — Golden hour drive back to camp. The Mara sunset is legendary — the sky ablaze with colour, silhouettes of acacia trees and giraffe against the horizon.

6:00 AM — Final dawn game drive in the Masai Mara. Your guide targets areas not covered yesterday — the Olare Motorogi conservancy border, the paradise plains, and the marsh pride territories. Every drive in the Mara is different. This morning might deliver a cheetah hunt at full speed, a leopard descending from a tree, or a river crossing.

9:00 AM — Breakfast at camp. Pack up and begin the drive back to Nairobi. The route crosses Maasai rangeland — pastoral scenes of cattle herds tended by Maasai warriors in red shukas, scattered bomas, and the endless green of the Mara-Loita hills.

Stop for lunch en route. Ascend the Rift Valley escarpment with final views across the valley floor — a fitting farewell to the bush.

3:00 PM — Arrive in Nairobi. Overnight at a centrally located hotel. Free afternoon to explore Nairobi — the Karen Blixen Museum, Kazuri Beads, or the Java House cafe scene.

7:00 AM — Breakfast at your hotel. Transfer to Nairobi Terminus SGR station.

8:00 AM — Board the **SGR Madaraka Express** back to the coast. Relax, watch the highlands give way to savannah, and relive the safari memories as Kenya rolls past your window.

1:00 PM — Arrive at Mombasa Terminus. Transfer to your Diani Beach or Mombasa hotel by 2:30 PM. Your Mara adventure is complete — but the Indian Ocean awaits.