Highlights of Kenya and Tanzania

It is located at Langata, approximately 3 kilometers from House of Waine. It is the creation of a Kenyan
conservation organization, the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW). It was established in order to protect the endangered Rothschild giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi, that is found only in the grasslands of East Africa.

The main attraction for visitors is feeding giraffes from a raised observation platform. The centre is also
home to several warthogs which freely roam the area along with the giraffes.

They have three types of Giraffes: Reticulated Giraffe, Masai Giraffe and the Rothschild Giraffe.

Opening Hours: 9:00 am to 5:30 pm 7 days a week.

Sheldrick is a Kenyan wildlife conservation charity founded in 1977 in memory of David Sheldrick by his widow Daphne Sheldrick. It assists and advises the Kenya Wildlife Service and manages an orphanage for elephants and rhinos.

One can also adopt an Elephant at a cost of USD 50 per year upon prior booking.

It is located approximately 20 minutes from House of Waine and is open daily from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. At this time you watch them being fed with the normal human children formulae milk.

Charges are Kshs. 500 per person both local and international.

Kazuri Bead Factory is situated 1 km and is approximately a 15 minutes walk from House of Waine – “a stones-throw away” from Karen Blixen Museum.

Originally founded by the late Lady Susan Wood in 1975, she created employment for struggling single mothers in the community. Kazuri is still located in its’ original setting in Karen, so far the workshop has now employed over 300 local women. Kazuri Beads specialize on Hand Made Ceramic Beads, Pottery and Genuine Leather Bags.

Kazuri Beads Shop opening hours are as follows: Sundays 9:00am to 4:00pm, Mondays to Saturdays from 8:30am am to 6:00pm. Karen Workshop closes Mon to Sat at 6.00pm and Sundays at 5.00pm.

Utamaduni Crafts Centre is located on Bogani East Road between Ostrich Park and Giraffe Centre in Langata open from 10am to 6pm daily. Utamaduni Crafts Centre is situated 5 Minutes from House of Waine. There are about eighteen individual Craft Shops in one large house offering a wealth of Kenyan Culture.

The centre offers antiques, wood carvings, bronze items, and jewellery of the highest quality. Utamaduni means “cultural heritage” and is a converted house containing (about 18) arts and crafts shops including:
cKisii Soapstone
- African Fabrics
- Men's Boutique
- Beaded Glassware
- An African coffee table book shop
- Antique African silver & gold jewelry
- Crafts made by ex-Nairobi street children
- A variety of beautiful Kenyan Kiondos (Baskets)

Utamaduni Craft Centre in Nairobi is the best place to buy souvenirs.

The museum is situated in the upscale Nairobi suburb of "Karen," a town that was created by the parceling out of the coffee farm's land after Blixen's return to Denmark. Itis also the former African home of Danish author Karen Blixen, famous for her book Out of Africa which chronicles life at the estate.

The Karen Blixen Museum is located 1km from House of Waine and is open every day between 9:30am and 6:00pm, including on weekends and public holidays.

Visitors have the opportunity to take part in continuously offered guided tours of the house, which features rooms designed in both the original decor and with props from the 1985 film. The grounds, which feature original equipment from the coffee farm, are also available for touring. There is also a gift shop. The grounds of the museum are available to rent for weddings, corporate functions, and other events.

Charges :100 Kshs per person-Residents & USD 10 Per Person Non-Residents.

The Museum is open from 9:30am to 6:00pm

A team of fully-qualified driver guides are on hand for vehicle safaris across the conservancy. The specially adapted open vehicles allow for excellent viewing but it is the richness of the game that our guests talk about. All the main safari predators, the rare Grevy zebra and of course the threatened rhino, both black and white, can be viewed in abundance. A particular favourite and well recognised aspect of the area near the lodge are the good elephant numbers. The game drives are on your terms using our experience and are not limited to daylight hours. We often explore the conservancy by night using spotlight and the full moon when it obliges. Lewa offers a very good opportunity to see the Big 5.

One of the most popular ways to explore the conservancy is in a more traditional fashion – on foot. Lewa Wilderness’ expert Masai walking guides, who have lived here all their lives, explore Lewa with guests to really get up close to many of our wild neighbours. Out walking almost nothing is a barrier and ground is covered very easily making the safari experience so much more real. Guests either walk in the early morning or early evening before dark. For the more in depth walking we suggest a few nights on Walking Wild.

With over thirty horses in our stables Lewa Wilderness is well equipped to explore our wilderness. With everything from ponies up, they are able to cater for a wide range of experience levels and have become very accustomed to accommodating groups of mixed ability. They offer extensive exploration on horseback and it is one of the very popular ways to investigate and safari through the open lands to the east of the lodge. For experienced riders full morning or full day rides can be arranged, or spend the night out with the horses and our fly camp!

Air Wilderness is able to offer scenic flights straight from the lodge in our cessna 206 which takes up to 4 passengers. Fly to RETETI Elephant Orphanage for their morning feed, or cruise low level along the Ewaso Ng'iro River and stop for a sundowner in a remote location. Air Wilderness can also be chartered privately to take you wherever you need to go across Kenya. Unfortunately our WACO Biplane is still unavailable due to us redoing the licences.

For something a little out of the ordinary, why not ride a camel! Guests can opt for a short ride in the bush, or for those seeking further adventure Walking Wild is our camel safari operation. This involves a longer camel trek (2 nights minimum) where guests walk across the African plains while the camels and Maasai guides transport the camp.

Visit our 'Shamba' ( Farm ) where we grow all the fresh fruit and vegetables for the lodge.

We have also started offering a 'Farm to Fork' dining experience for lunch in the farm, under one of the many mango trees - which is hugely recommended.

Drive, walk or horse ride to your exclusive campsite for the night and spend the evening around the campfire. Our fly camp is simple but extremely comfortable, with hot bucket showers and cosy tents, there is a mosquito dome option for those who want to sleep under the stars. This experience ensures adventure in comfort.

There is a fully equipped gym at the lodge.

Lewa Wilderness provides employment and training to local people through Lewa Crafts Furniture and Kifuma Weaving project. All of the beautiful furniture in the lodge is designed and created in our workshop, fashioned out of salvaged acacia wood and crafted into unique designs. The carpet weaving uses natural wool, spun and woven by hand into beautiful rugs for sale in our gift shop. Guests are welcome to visit both projects and see the craftsmanship at first hand.

The nearby Ngare Ndare Forest offers a different ecosystem to explore, with a treetop canopy walk and spectacular waterfalls where you can swim and enjoy a picnic lunch.

For those guests interested in the local traditional culture, there is an authentic Maasai village where guests can spend the day enjoying a unique experience interacting with amazing people.

Lewa Wilderness supports an HIV/AIDS orphanage, clinic and senior school, Pepo la Tumaini, in the nearby town of Isiolo. Guests are welcome to visit the school and meet the children. Learn more at www.tumainitrust.org

The cornerstone of a safari experience at Serian is that each group has their own open-top safari vehicle, and their own dedicated guide and spotter. The freedom this grants you is key to getting the most out of your stay: go where the day takes you, without the limitations of fixed schedules, or fitting in with other peoples’ plans. Nothing but personal desire need dictate what you do.

Our vehicles are specially customised to be a climbing frame, and a photographer’s extra tool. They are comfortable, able to handle the terrain, and cover the distance…. And were designed for sun, rain, wind, and above all, the feeling of having as little as possible separating you from what’s out there.

Our guides and spotters are intimately familiar with these special places, so they know all its secrets and the ways the animals interact with it, from the subtle changes of the seasons, to the stages of an animals lifecycle, to the flora that sustains it all – they are the key that can unlock it all for you.

Although ‘Walker’ really is Alex’s surname, being born to such an identity turns out to have been a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Spending his childhood days out on foot with his father’s trackers, then turning this into a full-time career as soon as he possibly could, Alex’s passion is walking, and it is without a doubt his preferred method of accessing the bush.

Walking safaris epitomise the golden chance to get away from the trails and beaten tracks, and immerse in the environment in a way that the noise and speed of vehicles don’t permit. Once you slow down, there’s a whole world that you never noticed before.

The beauty of walking is that it engenders an appreciation of an ecosystem’s sheer perfection: every tiny element has its place, and plays its role.

Stripping away the layers between you and an untamed setting beckons forth your primal instincts: your hearing, sight and smell all sharpen in response – and your appreciation of what you perceive is heightened as a result.

At Ngare Serian, we walk in our own private conservation area – a strictly no-vehicle zone that only we have access to. Here, you are likely to have close encounters with elephant, buffalo, hippo as well as more rare species like Chandler’s Mountain Reedbuck, klipspringer and oribi.

We employ scouts whose job it is to patrol the area and look out for snares, and walking in their company yields an insight into the land from the point of view of someone who roams it every day and knows it intimately.

First off, a disclaimer: flycamping has nothing to do with flying. Rather, it takes its name from sleeping in the bush under nothing more than a flysheet, as was the camping tradition before the luxury-laden era of ‘glamping’ arrived.

The premise is that you spend the days walking, and the nights sleeping out in light weight tents, in a makeshift camp that moves each day – the end of each day’s walk brings you to your new site for the night.

Flycamping can easily be incorporated into your stay with us, with some nights spent in our main camp before and after – and in fact, we can’t recommend it enough. It can add a whole new dimension to your experience, and a taste of the wilderness that few others ever encounter.

For so many, the definition of a night drive has come to be a quick scan around with spotlights en route back to camp after sundowners.

For us though, it’s an exploration of the enigmatic nightlife that we are oblivious to as we sit around the dinner table and proceed to bed. Nocturnal creatures emerge, the heavens are festooned with stars, and the landscape mutates into a whole other world by the light of the moon.

Take a flask of soup and a picnic dinner, and set out with a spotlight: if nothing else, the solitude and silence by starlight is reason enough in itself. Using red-filtered bulbs to avoid dazzling the animals, scan the plains for that pride of lion looking ready to hunt.

Once you’ve spotted them, switch to infrared floodlights, and watch the scene unfold through our infrared cameras. This is as close as you’ll get to invisibility, watching the wildlife without the fact of your presence affecting it.

An early morning departure from Ngare Serian will see you at your launchpad. Suspended in a basket beneath the balloon's canopy, you float over the plains and above the forest alongside the Mara River, checking out hippos, crocodile and elephant from high above.

The flight time is generally in the region of one hour and ends with a champagne breakfast in the open grassland within the reserve. An unbeatable start to the day!

Explore the Northern Serengeti with our fabulous and very experienced guides. Game drives allow you to get closer to the big game and cover greater distances so that you can explore further afield in this beautiful part of the Serengeti.

**Game drives are on a shared basis unless a private guide and vehicle have been pre-booked. Max six in a vehicle.

Walking safaris are available at Lamai in certain seasons. At times of year when the grass can be a bit higher walking is sometimes not possible so it is important to bear this in mind (typically between January - March and June).

Walking in the bush is a fantastic experience and one of our favourite safari pastimes. It gives you the chance to really learn about the intricacies of the African bush; to taste, touch, smell and feel Africa. You don't get as up close and personal to the big game, but you do meet the little guys, all equally important in the grand scheme of things.

Enjoy thrilling game drives lead by highly qualified guides in closed 4 x 4 game viewing vehicles. We offer one crater floor game drive per stay. If guests are staying for 2x nights we can also offer a Lake Manyara National Park game drive on the arrival day at a supplement.

Guests can enjoy cultural activities in a nearby Masai village.