Go north! there is much more to Kenya than the well-known Maasai Mara Game Reserve and Nairobi. North of the Equator, the Great Rift Valley and Mount Kenya lies the awe inspiring Laikipia Plateau, an area the size of Wales, still free from the hordes of game vehicles and flashing cameras that are found in more well-known regions. There is plenty of room here for tourists, abundant wildlife and intriguing tribes. Laikipia is where Kenya’s wild and semi-arid northern frontier country starts.
Amid spectacular scenery, traditional ways of pastoral life continue side by side with an abundance of free-roaming game. This is high country, with altitudes from 1,700 meters (5,577 feet) to 2,600 meters (8,530 feet). Habitats range from arid semi-desert, scrubland, and sprawling open plains in the north and south, to the thick forests of cedar and olive trees in the east. To the north are camels and desert. Hills and deep ravines spread like fingers between fast flowing streams and rivers gushing their way in to the Uaso Nyiro (Brown River), northern Kenya’s largest river.
Formerly a patchwork of huge ranches and still an important area for livestock, Laikipia works in a way which means that the numbers of tourists are very well controlled by the number of lodges each conservancy/ranch has. Always spacious, it is never crowded. One of the attractions of Laikipia is that no two products seem to be much alike.
Safaris will as often as not be by camel, or on horseback or as treks with colourful Samburu tribesmen. There is almost always a pleasant climate with no big temperature differences, unlike other parts of Africa where some months are unbearably hot.
There are no tsetse flies in Laikipia. There is easy access by light aircraft or helicopter to wonderful pristine landscape. The cultural experiences available at Laikipia are more genuine and more diverse than in Maasai areas, with the Samburu on the doorstep, and Rendille and Pokot close enough to see on a day excursion from the lodges.
All the lodges are extremely pro- active in supporting conservation and community programmes within the region, and in educating clients and involving them in the massive amount of work being done in the conservancy to sustain wildlife and cultural well being. The local communities obtain real benefits from tourism and vice versa.
The area around the Laikipia Plateau has one of the biggest and most diverse mammal populations in Kenya—only the Maasai Mara can claim to have more game. The Big Five are all present, plus the wide-ranging wild dogs; there's even a chance of seeing the rare aquatic sitatunga antelope. Grevy's zebra, which is more narrowly striped than its southern cousin, was once hunted almost to extinction for its fine desirable skin, but has re-established itself.
You are more likely to see rhino, leopard and wild dogs here than in any other part of Africa. Other rare animals include the reticulated giraffe, Somali ostrich and Beisa oryx. Moreover, you can also find most of Kenya’s more common wildlife in Laikipia, as well as more than 2,000 elephants, which migrate between the slopes of Mount Kenya, the Laikipia safari conservancies and the Samburu region.
The lasting memory of most visitors is that they have been somewhere in Africa which relates more to the picture painted of the pioneer days....of “Out of Africa”, Finch-Hatton, Hemingway and the flamboyant life in a Happy Valley; of a variety of amazing scenery, of wildlife adventures and of extremely interesting people, both indigenous and migratory.
NOTE: Plastic bags are now banned in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, and are likely to be confiscated by customs officials on arrival, whether in clients’ baggage or carried by hand. For example, Duty-Free bags
Situated in along the Nairobi River in beautiful Kenya, the capital of Nairobi is East Africa's most cosmopolitan city. It serves as an excellent starting point for African safari trips around Kenya. Nairobi is Africa’s 4th largest city and is a vibrant and exciting place, and although it has developed a reputation which keeps tourist visits brief, there are some fascinating attractions: its cafe culture, unbridled nightlife, the National Museum, the Karen Blixen Museum and most notably just 20 minutes from the city centre wild lions and buffalo roam in the world’s only urban game reserve. Make sure you pay a visit to the elephant orphanage operated by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
NOTE: Plastic bags are now banned in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, and are likely to be confiscated by customs officials on arrival, whether in clients’ baggage or carried by hand. For example, Duty-Free bags
North Island
Some 30km from the main island of Mahé, North Island, enjoys private isolation within the Inner Island group of the Seychelles. Luminous white beaches cosset a tropical interior of coconut palms and takamaka trees cradled between three granite outcrops, 110m to 180m in height, whose polished grey ramparts rise from the white sands and filigree reefs of the azure ocean.
North Island is a sanctuary where natural habitats, long neglected, have been rehabilitated so that endangered Seychelles fauna and flora could be reintroduced and given a place to grow and thrive. On this floating paradise, 11 guest villas have been built from local materials reaped from the rehabilitation process, where luxury and simplicity mingle to form a signature architectural style we call ‘barefoot luxury’.
North Island is a place that unashamedly aims at providing the very best in privacy, location, accommodation, services, facilities and experience, yet has restored its environment to a place of verdant plenty – a Noah’s Ark afloat in warm tropical waters in colours of blue and aquamarine. The true essence of North Island is a rare encounter that is in harmony with the environment – one that touches and inspires the lives of all who walk her beaches, dive her waters and contemplate her beauty.
