Conservation safari operator, Great Plains Conservation, has announced its first post-COVID-19 safari experience for East Africa, planned entirely around the health and safety of guests.

‘Return of the Safari Pioneers’ will depart from New York on November 21 and land at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. Guests will have exclusive use of an entire business-class cabin during the flight, according to Great Plains’ MD of Sales, Marketing and Reservations, Hilton Walker.

Walker said, as safety of guests was a priority at all times, they would board and disembark separately to other passengers.

To minimise guests’ contact with each other they will fly directly from Nairobi to the camp and directly back at the end of the trip.

The group will be divided into three smaller groups of just 10 guests and will spend three nights each at three Great Plains properties and Arijiju in the Borona Conservancy in central Kenya. To ensure safety and minimal contact, guests will have exclusive use of the properties while there.

“Our camps are adhering to a host of new health and safety protocols which we have developed following extensive discussions with leading health authorities around the world,” said Walker. Game-viewing vehicles will be limited to four guests to ensure distancing is adhered to.

Guests will be transported from Mara Plains in the Olare Orok Conservancy in southwest Kenya by private vehicle to Mara Nyika in the neighbouring Naboisho Conservancy. A chartered aircraft will take them to ol Donyo Lodge in Chyulu Hills National Park in southeast Kenya and Arijiju, north of Nairobi.

Guests must produce a negative COVID-19 test prior to departure from the US, said Walker, adding that they would have to wear ‘FaceWear’. “We call face masks ‘FaceWear’ as we are in the hospitality business, not the hospital business,” he said.