Sarara Camp

Folded into the southern curve of the Mathews Range, Sarara Camp sits inside the 850,000 acres of Namunyak Community Conservancy, land held and run by the Samburu. It was the first tourist lodge here, opened in 1997 after Samburu elders and the Bastard family agreed to build a locally owned tourism venture together. Six tents make up the camp, each raised to face the mountains and a waterhole where elephant and other game come to drink. The tents are tall enough to stand in, with cupboard space, electric light, and hot water piped to an open-air bathroom; the shower looks straight onto the hills. A two-bedroom house sits alongside for families or groups travelling together. Walking is the point here, on foot or on camelback, guided by Samburu trackers who read these hills as home ground. Game drives run by day and by night, and horseback safaris cross the open country at a slower pace. Guests can join camel-supported fly camps in a dry riverbed, or walk out to watch Samburu warriors sing at the wells as they draw water for their herds. Elephant numbers in the wider Mathews Range have climbed from near zero in the mid-1980s to several thousand today, a shift the conservancy itself set in motion. There is a bar, a pool, and Wi-Fi, but the waterhole outside the tent remains the main entertainment.