Walking

We have pioneered a number of walking safaris in Maasailand and have worked closely with different Maasai communities to establish a number of campsites to support our clients who wish to do more than drive through the country on their way to the Maasai Mara Reserve. A combination of time spent walking and camping in the wilds with more conventional stays in a safari lodge in the Mara generally proves to be extremely rewarding for those who do it.

We have put together a series of walks, from a few hours to a week, to suit all abilities that provide interest and variety over open plains, through light thorn-bush, rocky hill slopes, highland forest and flat salt pans. The walks have also been designed to provide close encounters with a wide range of Kenya’s big game and a more intimate interaction with the birds, insects, reptiles and plant-life than is normally the case on a more conventional, motorised safari.

Walking in this area offers a range of experiences that most people miss on more conventional safaris and everyone who takes the time and puts in a bit of physical effort is rewarded with a far better understanding of the close interaction between the people, the flora and fauna that all make this part of Kenya such a special place. Walking in the bush provides people with a far more intimate and richer contact with the country than would otherwise be the case.

In all cases we employ local guides who have spent their lives growing up in the environment through which you walk and enjoy talking about their lives, their bush craft skills and the lives of their families. Spending time with people who have grown up living in harmony with the wild is a privilege and you will see and learn so much.

Our walks are centred in four areas: Maji Moto, the Siana Plains, the Loita Hills and the Lolgorien Plateau and are all very different. The first two are within a few miles of the main route down into the Maasai Mara whilst the latter are well off the beaten track, in some of the remotest areas of Maasailand. We stay close to villages that see little in the way of tourist traffic and they are still living, working villages where interaction with the people is far more genuine. Your presence in these places directly benefits the local communities as we pay fees directly to the community for them to use in funding local education and health projects.

With increasing pressure from tourist developments in and around the Mara Reserve, the growth in agriculture and demarcation of the land, the opportunity to walk freely through this wilderness area is one that is fast disappearing.