Luxury meets wild in the Mara

The holiday season is upon us and rather than go to the French Riviera or Dubai as preferred by the wealthy, it is time to dine in the bush amid the sounds of big game and stargaze late into the night in Kenya.

There is something brazenly luxurious about sleeping in a bush, in a safari tent or a lodge. BDLife has picked a few bush escapes where you forget the luxuries of the city but still find them in the wild.

From the stunningly-styled The Sanctuary at Ole Lentille located in Laikipia, Finch Hatton where history meets luxury, Cottars 1920s Camp, Sekenani and Spirit of Masai Mara, Elsa’s Kopje and Leopard Rock Lodge in Meru, Ashnil Samburu Camp, Tortilis Camp in Amboseli to Elephant Bedroom Camp, you can never visit the many lodges hidden in off-the-beaten paths in Kenya that will make your wildest dreams come true.

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Luxury meets wild in the Mara

By Stellar Murumba

A tower of Maasai giraffes walk down the hill in our full view towards a seasonal stream. It is lunch hour and this is where they come to water.

A few minutes earlier, herds of wildebeests, zebras, impalas had thundered down the same route with four lions in pursuit.

An excitement is in the air and every khaki-clad traveller is darting for a binoculars on their lunch table. Everyone wants to capture the moment of nature in its pristine form in the wilderness.

Betty, a tour guide says that some tourists break down when they come to Maasai Mara and cannot sight wild animals; especially the elderly tourists.

Under a huge cactus tree, there are a few elephant families, others are at the waterhole. At the sighting of “big mama” elephant— the dominant female elephant in the parade— the lions slow down and their plans of having a wildebeest dessert is thwarted.

Bush travel is a growth market increasingly capturing the imaginations of those who want to wind down and escape the city life, its chaos and its luxuries.

Beyond the big five, the great wildebeest migration has boosted tourist arrivals to Maasai Mara. With more than 100 camps, lodges, the destination has morphed into the safari equivalent of Disneyland.

Too rough

The migration spectacle happens every year and Betty says the wildebeests at the Mara now are residents.

“Migratory ones are almost giving birth around January or February in the Serengeti, Tanzania. They bring back their young ones afterwards,” she says.

Safaris were previously seen as too ‘‘rough’’ for holidaymakers keen on fine dining and who prefer staying in luxurious hotels with elegant decor to match. However, lodges in Maasai Mara have elevated bush experience into luxury from the architecture to chic decor.

The Richard Branson-owned Mahali Mzuri is one such luxury safari camp. Its futuristic tents are nestled in the 13,500 hectares area within the Olare Motorogi Conservancy.

This is co-existence with the over 250 Maasai families that have leased out their land for conservation. Theirs is clear relationship of livestock, wildlife and tourism. Within this conservancy alone, there are over 100 lions; they walk in a pride of 26, usually.

Retro in style

When Mr Branson— a business magnate who is also the founder of Virgin Group— together with his son visited Kenya, they never wanted to go back because of its virgin beauty hence the name Mahali Mzuri – “beautiful place” in Kiswahili.

The British maverick stamped his presence in the continent, with his newest addition to the Virgin Limited Edition, making Mahali Mzuri a charm in the Mara. The bespoke, steel framed, architectural dwellings are clad in terracotta canvas and elephant grey lining with colour inspiration drawn from the natural environment.

Local textile experts helped to source exuberant African prints from Kenya and Tanzania, giving each tent a distinctive palette. Local furniture makers were commissioned to create a stylish and eclectic array of indigenous wood and basketwork furniture and fixtures, which range from clean-cut contemporary to organic and retro in style.

Since it opened three years, the camp has been receiving about 95 per cent of foreign travellers, but this is changing with African vacationers visiting.

Nichola Waterhouse, the general manager says there is something for everybody at Mahali Mzuri whether it’s exciting game drives or pampering in the spa.

‘‘We offer up to 50 per cent off our rates for East African residents,’’ says Nichola.

At times, guests rent out the whole lodge. The rates start from Sh1.9 million ($18,925) during low season and Sh2.9 million ($28,800) during high season for exclusive use of all the 12 tents.

The tents accommodate 24 guests. The lounging area has a library. The meals are served around a communal table or alfresco on the deck with backdrop of the valley.

When asked about their most expensive drinks at the bar, the camp manager, Mariana Kathini smiles and says that all meals and drinks are included in the stay package.

Mini-bar

The mini-bar stocks Hennessy 250, De Kuyp primier liqueur, Cointreau, Kahlùa, Disaronno, Gordon’s London Gin, Grey Goose Vodka, Drambuie, Anejo Patron tequila, The Glenlivet Scotch Whisky, Bushmills 1608 Irish whiskey, Hendrick’s Gin, Tanqueray No. Ten, Galliano, Patron, Grappa Nonino among others.

“At Mahali Mzuri, you can drink all you want… if you decide to come in walking and crawling out of the bar when done, you are welcome,” jokingly says Mariana.

As you sit in the mini-bar, you have a bracelet on your wrist reminding you that your are in Maasailand, least you’re too drunk.

When you land at Olare Orok airstrip, you are a welcomed the Kenyan way.

A Maasai souvenir bracelet is slipped through your left wrist. From the airstrip, the camp is a 30 minutes’ drive. You can also take a helicopter ride from the airstrip to the camp.

If you reach in the evening, you get to watch hyenas, lions, blue jeans impalas (topis), elephants, eagles, hippos, common zebras, on your way to the lodge.

Of course, you’re still sipping on fine champagne, gin, wine, beer among other drinks as you watch the game.

We came across a lone elephant. As we approach it, it stamps its right front foot while flapping its mammoth ears— a polite warning not to get too close to him.

“It has been chased away from the rest of the herd. That is what elephants do to their teenage males to ensure they don’t mate with their sisters. Life in the bush is to struggle,” says Betty.

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Splendid sunsets give way to silent nights in Gilgil

By Juliet Mutegi

The view is sublime. Sitting amidst lush verdant bushes and towering trees, everything here is so still and idyllic it feels like a whole world away.

Yet Gilgil is just a little off the beaten track, about 15 minutes off Nakuru-Nairobi highway towards Nyahururu.
At Gilgil, you will be greeted by a hilly interior that has its own charm which is every bit enticing as the beaches, parks and lakes.

Set on 100 acres, Kika Lodge, a tented bush camp sits on unspoilt beauty. It has a nine-hole golf course that has already earned this lodge an elite following. It also has an airstrip.

Its crisscrossing hiking trails lead to the green tents rising from the ledges of the hills mushrooming as if part of the natural landscape. Inside, is a heady mix of the modern, minimalist, and luxurious touches.

Sports fishing

The use of a semi-room divide, instead of a solid wall, works with the expansive zipped window panels to let in the spectacular views and the sunlight.

The tent feels open, free and so naturally welcoming that you can feel the stresses and the tedium of a long day just melt away. Because the expansive tent sides can be zipped off and the outdoors merge with the indoors to become one, the urge to stay in is overwhelming.

From the outdoor jacuzzi, you can bask in Gilgil’s sun-baked air and watch the blue skies transform into the most orange sunset. If you love adventure, you can go on a horse-back safari and see small game and wonderful views of Lake Elementaita.

It borders Gilgil River that flows from the Aberdares. With an abundance of trout, the lodge can morph into the place you go to fish or teach a man to fish.

In the crisp stillness of the night, guests can have picnics in the bushes. The lodge organically grows its vegetables.

Kika Lodge unspoken motto seems to be show, not tell. With the tiniest signage pointing the way, the architects heavily incorporated eco-friendly and sustainable practices without calling attention to it.

The lodge is a pet project of Albert Njuguna who built his family house on a hill on the property he bought.
“I discovered that whenever I came to Gilgil, I didn’t want to leave I decided to develop the place to share the same experience,’’ he said.

While Kika Lodge boasts all the trappings and trimmings, making it a dreamy escape, there is only one TV in the complex!

“This is by design,” Albert says. “We prefer our guests to enjoy the serenity and the peace in the silence. If anyone wants to watch TV, why don’t they just stay home?”

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Falling in love with Naivasha

By Jackson Biko

You haven’t seen beauty until you have seen a dead yellow bark acacia tree, which means you have to go to the 20,000 acre Oserengoni Wildlife Sanctuary in Naivasha.

If you go, you will have to sit by the shores of Oloidien Lake for a bush breakfast, a four-metre diameter salty lake that is fed by the Mau escarpment.

Oserengoni Wildlife Sanctuary houses Chui Lodge and Kiangazi House.

If you opt for Chui Lodge you will most likely be driven by Bernard Mburu, the tour guide who on the way will point at a herd of giraffe calves minded by a mother giraffe.

Bernard will say that the mothers take turns to mind the calves of other mothers as they go out to graze. “How much does she charge per hour?” I asked him and he grinned indulgently from under his beat up European Union tracker’s cap.

Wondrous artistry

The water level rose at Oloidien Lake and choked some of the yellow back acacia and they died a wonderful and artistic death.

They died with their branches curling towards the sky as if they were hands reaching for the sky in last redemption prayer. They died and they dried right there in water, some bent forward as if kneeling in final submission. It’s like an art installation.

It’s on these shores that a table was laid out with white table cloth and breakfast served during a gorgeous morning when the sky was so blue and the lake calm that all seemed right with the world.

Further in, a family of hippos bobbed in the water looking like frying sausages.

An illegal fisherman’s boat drifted into view as an egg was beat into a pan behind us. The silence was loud, only disrupted by the frying egg. It seemed almost illegal to fry an egg out here. Almost.

The day before I had sat down with Chui Lodge’s tourism managers, Geoff Mayes and Suzanne Zwagger in the verandah of the restaurant. They explained the wondrous artistry of the lodge, the collection of artefacts in it, and the elaborate usage of authentic materials to create a work of art that goes beyond hospitality.

Suzanne, the granddaughter of June Zwagger talks about her grandmother with a mixture of awe and tongue-in-cheek reverence. June designed the lodge with wood from fallen trees, she had tables made from the same trees, the roofs came from the earth and she used her heart to guide her quirkiness.

A fastidious and keen designer, June, opted to design the lodge without employing any straight lines.

As history goes, Suzanne’s grandfather— Hans Swagger—a Dutchman fought in World War II as a marine and was later to meet June on a cruise ship. Cupid struck.

They settled at Oserian, Lake Naivasha. There was a bit of flower farming, actually a hell lot of it.

Oserian Flowers was started in 1969 with a five-hectare production and six employees and later evolved into some sort of a behemoth flower production farm by 1982 under the hands of Hans, his wife and son, Peter.

Then at some point flower farming in Naivasha started getting a bad rap and the family decided to diversify their portfolio to what they were most passionate about - conservation.

They bought the farm in 1994, fenced it in 1996, and then June got working on it, themed it around eccentricism, around freedom around free will.

“She built this place by heart, not a calculator,” Suzanne says fondly.

“She is a fiery redhead.”

That eccentrism is everywhere in the lodge. You might not see this but from the air but the pond that sparkles not too far from where we were seated is in the shape of Africa.

“My grandmother’s father was posted to India during the war,’’ Suzanne said, “My grandmother would often sleep on the verandah under a mosquito net and when she woke up the next morning, there would be tiger paw marks around her sleeping area. This kind of adventure would come to inform many things that this lodge is.”

From his laps, Geoff strokes a sleeping Kip, Suzanne’s three-month old cross of terrier and sausage dog.

“Her [June] eccentrism and love for the preservation is alive here, “ he says looking out at the distant Mau Escarpment framing the lodge. Geoff is a bushwacker.

Passionate, funny, rugged in the heart and catches rattlesnakes with the ease you would catch butterflies with a net.

Oserengoni Wildlife Sanctuary also has the highest density of leopards in the country. You will realise that fact if you go for a night game drive.