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Company History
Savage Wilderness Safari’s Pioneered Whitewater Rafting in Kenya in 1990 with the now legendary first descent of the Athi River by Mark Savage and Co. It all started with Mark’s bush pilot days. After viewing a rafting video of the Zambezi, Mark thought about the potential for rafting on the wild Kenyan rivers he regularly flew over. The first boat was purchased a few months later along with a set of paddles. Volunteers signed up for the first (non commercial) trip down the Athi and the rest, as they say, is history.
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.: Other rivers explored in the early days were the Tana, Mathioya and Ewaso Ng’iro rivers. In 1990 Mark decided to go commercial and Whitewater Adventures was born. Mark travelled to America to gain a professional American qualification in whitewater rafting then returned to Kenya to start commercially rafting the Tana River. Being only one and a half hours from Nairobi, the Tana River (near Sagana) was the ideal choice for a one day rafting trip from Nairobi. In the early days both clients and equipment were transported to and from Nairobi until, in 1993 the land which Savage Camp now stands on was purchased.
.: Kayaking is a recent addition to the list of activities provided by Savage Wilderness Safari’s, although kayaking has taken place in Kenya since the early nineties. First kayak descents of the Tana and Athi Rivers were completed at this time by river guides working for the company during its early years. About this time Savage Wilderness Safari’s acquired their first kayaks, bringing the total number of commercially available kayaks in Kenya to... 2!
.: Things changed in the year 2000 when the seeds were sown for the Virginwaters 2001 first descents expedition which aimed to kayak first descents throughout Kenya. The team was made up of James and Kris along with a few other paddlers who joined for short periods. The crew were backed by a number of sponsors (see links) and have produced a number of articles, web reports and river guides on the trip. In all 8 new rivers (or sections of new river) were paddled, ranging from steep creeks to big volume African hair boatin!
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