Kenya Snake Safari: 8 Days, 7 Nights

Our Kenya Snake Safari starts in Nairobi City. On arrival you will be met by our guide at the airport. You will then proceed to your hotel, crossing the city.

If time allows, this afternoon, we shall visit a local forest for some herping.

Night in Nairobi.

We shall depart early and head South to the scenic Taita Hills; a key site for our Kenya Snake Safari. These are amazing hills that rise above the vast Tsavo Ecosystem. The Taita Hills form part of the Eastern Arc Mountains, that are famous in Kenya and Tanzania. This unique biome forms great habitat for species endemism.

We shall enjoy walks in the forests, farms and wetlands, seeking species such as Tsavo Dwarf Gecko, Kilimanjaro Five-toed Skink,  Speke’s Sand Lizard, Southern Long-tailed Sand Lizard, Blue-headed Tree Agama, Taita Hills Blade-horned Chameleon, Nile Monitor Lizard, Voi Wedge-snouted Worm Lizard, Cape Wolf Snake, Jackson’s Centipede Eater, Spotted Bush/Wood Snake, Boomslang, East African Garter Snake, Northern Clawed Frog, Marbled Snout-Burrower, Eastern Dwarf Squeaker, Taita Dwarf Toad, Scheffler’s Puddle Frog, Peters Reed Frog, Peter’s Foam-nest Tree Frog, Taita Warty Frog and Taita Hills Caecilian.

Night in Taita.

We shall then proceed to the dry Tsavo Ecosystem, located beneath the Taita Hills. Here are some of the largest dry savannahs in Africa, with amazing red-coloured soils. We shall search for several herptile species here as we
enjoy local mammals like Common Zebra, Maasai Giraffe, Gerenuk, Fringe-eared Oryx, Common Eland, Unstriped Ground Squirrel, African Elephant and Kirk’s Dik-diks.
Reptiles to keep an eye for include Tsavo Dwarf Gecko, Common Striped Skink, Kenya Red-headed Rock Agama, White-throated/ Savannah Monitor Lizard, Eastern Small-scaled Burrowing Asp, Spotted Bush Snake, Black Mamba, Large Brown/ Ashe’s Spitting Cobra, Red-spotted beaked Snake, Kenya Sand Boa, Beautiful Sand Snake, Speckled Sand Snake, Puff Adder, Red Spitting Cobra and Boomslang.
Amphibians here include Edible Bullfrog, Nile Rocket Frog, Somali/ Spotted Kassina, Delicate Reed Frog and Water Lily Reed Frog.

This area is one of the highlights of our Kenya Snake Safari.
Nights in Tsavo.

Our Kenya Snake Safari will then proceed to Arabuko Sokoke Forest, located at the Kenyan Coast. Here we shall scout the forest in different sectors as well as the neighbouring habitats, like local wetlands and grasslands. This is the best East Coast Forest in Africa and has some really amazing species’ diversity. Many mammals occur here too, such as Yellow Baboon, African Elephant, Four-toed Sengi, Golden-rumped Sengi, Red-bellied Bush Squirrel and Caracal.
Reptiles to expect here include Flat-headed Tree Gecko, Tropical House Gecko, Kaya Mrima Tree Gecko, Angulate House Gecko, Tree Skink, Southern Long-tailed Sand Lizard, Speke’s Sand Lizard, Ashe’s Legless Sand Skink/ Gede Striped Sand Skink, Pemba Writhing Skink, Eastern Black-lined Plated Lizard, Yellow-throated Plated Lizard, Great Plated Lizard, Eastern Small-scaled Burrowing Asp, Usambara Vine Snake, Hildebrandt’s/ Kenyan Bark Snake, Tiger Snake, Speckled Green Snake, Flat-snouted Wolf Snake, Eastern Stripe-bellied Sand Snake, Link-marked Sand Snake, Southern African Rock Python, Puff Adder, Snouted Night Adder, Rufous Egg-eater/ East African Egg-eater, Boomslang, Green Mamba, Black Mamba and White-lipped Snake.

Amphibians to expect include Red-legged Kassina, Uniform Tree Frog, Muller’s Clawed Frog, Southern Foam-nest Tree Frog, East African Puddle Frog, Argus Reed Frog, Water Lily Reed Frog, Tinker Reed Frog, Schilluk Rocket Frog and Anchieta’s Rocket Frog.
Nights at Watamu.

We shall have the morning to keep enjoying more species in and around Arabuko Sokoke Forest; hoping to add any species we may have missed during the Kenya Snake Safari. We shall then enjoy lunch.
In the afternoon, we shall take a local flight back to Nairobi. Here we shall connect with our flights home, marking the end to our herping adventure.

Nile Crocodile, Kaya Mrima Gecko, Tsavo Dwarf Gecko, Kilimanjaro Five-toed Skink, Kibonoto Forest Lizard, Green Keel-bellied Lizard, Speke’s Sand Lizard, Tropical Girdled Lizard, Yellow-throated Plated Lizard, Blue-headed Tree Agama, Taita Hills Blade-horned Chameleon, Nile Monitor Lizard, Voi Wedge-snouted Worm Lizard, Kenya Sand Boa, Cape Wolf Snake, East African Shovel-Snout, Smith’s Racer, Spotted Bush/Wood Snake, Boomslang, Green Mamba, Black Mamba, Forest Cobra, Puff Adder

Eastern Dwarf Squeaker, Taita Dwarf Toad, Scheffler’s Puddle Frog, Peters Reed Frog, Southern Foam-nest Frog, Peter’s Foam-nest Tree Frog, Taita Warty Frog, Common Squeaker, Marbled Snout-Burrower, Red-legged Kassina, Edible Bullfrog, Cryptic Sand Frog, Red-banded Rubber Frog, Northern Clawed Frog, Taita Hills Caecilian

Savannah, Dry Scrubland, Wetlands, Eastern Arc Mountains Forest, East Coast Lowland Forest

Excellent

Indian Ocean Coast, African Big Game mammals, Kenya’s Endemic species