Savage Wilderness, the Sagana-based adventure operator, has spent the past few seasons reshaping what a biking safari Kenya can look like, and the results are starting to show in who turns up. Fewer guests arrive wanting only to watch animals from a vehicle. More want to cover the ground themselves, pedal by pedal, and see how the landscape changes between breakfast and sunset.

What Makes a Biking Safari Different From the Usual Game Drive

A game drive keeps a careful distance from everything, which is sensible and also a little flat. On a bike, that gap closes. Riders pass herds of zebras and wildebeest grazing beside the track, hear the savannah properly for once, and smell it too. There’s no engine drowning out the morning. Certified guides lead every ride, and the pace is set by the group rather than by a rigid timetable, so a slow start after a long flight isn’t treated as a problem.

Riders from twelve upwards are welcome.

Another factor that surprises new participants is the age limit and fitness level range. Participants aged twelve years and above are welcome, and the daily distance goes from the relaxing 40 kilometres up to way more than 120 for those riders who need a challenge. A family with teens and a bunch of experienced cyclists on an endurance programme will be able to go on these trips, and the guide just will adapt the schedule depending on who is on the saddle.

Maasai Mara Is Still the Core of the Programme

When asked what route they remember best about their trip, the answer will almost always be the Maasai Mara one. The ride is conducted within private reserves next to the game reserve, and it boasts the Big Five and the Great Migration during the right season of the year. The guests choose either a semi-supported camping experience under the sky or a comfortable lodge experience with a bed at the end of the day. There is a support vehicle accompanying the whole trip with luggage, spare equipment and snacks.

Why the Conservancies Ride So Differently

Keeping to the conservancies rather than the busier reserve changes the feel of a trip. There are fewer vehicles at each sighting, the tracks are quieter, and guides know which ridge catches the first light over the escarpment. It’s the sort of local knowledge that never makes it into a brochure, though it often decides whether a ride is merely pleasant or something people talk about for years afterwards.

Heli Biking on Mount Kenya Has No Rival in the Country

Savage Wilderness is the only firm operating in Kenya where they do a mountain bike descent with the help of helicopters in Mount Kenya, and it seems a bit unbelievable until one imagines how that works out. They start by flying up above the glaciers and rocky areas and land up at an elevation of 4,200 metres and descend all the way down to 1,800 metres while experiencing the changing landscapes of the high moorlands, forests, and eventually, the agricultural lands near the bottom end.

Riding Beside Kenya’s Gravel Racing Elite

On certain tours, members of Team Amani, the famous gravel racing team from Kenya, ride along with the tour as guides. This is something that any serious cyclist dreams of. They are racing cyclists who participate in races in foreign countries. And having an opportunity to discuss pace, routes, and training techniques right while riding on the Rift Valley roads would be difficult for most tour agencies to organise. Availability of such tours is limited, and those wishing to join should enquire about it beforehand.

Accommodation Ranges From Bush Camps to Conservancy Lodges

These kinds of rides involve the use of appropriate tents, beds, hot baths and meals prepared by a chef, far from what many people would think of as dehydrated meals. These lodge-to-lodge types of rides involve selecting carefully selected campsites and lodges within private conservancies because of both the setting and the proximity to the wildlife. The food, the accommodations, the guides, the support vehicle, and the logistics are all included in the cost, leaving the riders with just the choice of comfort levels for after a hard day’s ride.

Kit and Mechanical Backup

Good quality mountain bikes and helmets may be rented by everyone wishing not to bring their own ones. These are allocated according to the size of the riders and their styles. If you have your own favourite saddle and pedals, then just let them know and try to arrange them. Extra tubes, tools and a repair kit move along in the support vehicle and, thus, the puncture of a tyre will only be the temporary impediment to the ride.

Choosing When to Ride

The whole year round Kenya can be visited, but, anyway, it is better to choose the dry season from late June to October and from January to March, as there are firm tracks, clear weather and wildlife concentrated at the sources of water. The migration period in the Mara is from July to October and, obviously, increases the popularity of these weeks. But the green season also has some advantages, namely lush nature and few tourists.

A Business That Began With a Bush Pilot’s Hunch

Cycling is, in comparison to other activities, quite a new experience for a company with a long history. Mark Savage, a bush pilot in the late 1980s, noticed very promising white water during his flight above the Athi River in 1990 and acquired his first raft the following year. James Savage manages the company today, which has developed from one particular river into the biggest adventure company in Kenya in terms of cycling, rafting, kayaking, mountaineering, and corporate team-building programmes from their base in Sagana.

Looking Ahead

With the Mara conservancies, Rift Valley rides, and the Mount Kenya helicopter descent going side by side, Savage Wilderness has become a company that is able to offer biking holidays for a much larger audience than their competitors do. The success of the next season will likely be determined by how widely people hear about the Team Amani departures and the helicopter descent – both of which, as far as anyone knows, no other company in the country is offering.

For more details, visit our website—https://www.savagewilderness.org/
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Phone: +254 (0)737 835 963
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]