Saruni Rhino Standard Banda

We offer guests a scintillating, ‘thrill-of-a-lifetime’ experience: a walking safari tracking black rhino on foot, accompanied by our expert guides and a highly-trained Sera Community Conservancy ranger, guiding you in safety on foot to the whereabouts of the 16 rhinos throughout the 54,000 hectares-large sanctuary. The vast rhino sanctuary has been fenced in what is one of the most advanced conservation projects in Kenya. Our guides game drive guests to a tracking distance away from the nearest rhino, leaving the vehicle and continuing on foot (very lightly to not give away any presence) to metres from the grazing rhino. The tension is palpable as guests come across the rhino in such close proximity for the first time; heart beating, pulse racing, curiosity and excitement mounting – it doesn’t get more thrilling than this!

Breakfasts, lunches and starlit dinners unfold in the dry riverbed beneath an open sky, and on special evenings, the camp takes guests to one of its secret spots for a bush dinner or picnic lunch where elephants, waterbuck, lion, impala and the Samburu Special Five come to take water nearby. It is the kind of meal that has nothing to do with the food and everything to do with where you are sitting.

Walking safaris are individually tailored to guests' interests and are set in a breath-taking landscape. Walking with the Samburu warriors out in the African bush is a fantastic experience and guests learn from their authentic local knowledge of the plants, animals and landscape, about their traditions and about their lives.

Game drives through Sera Community Conservancy run morning, afternoon, and all day; and the landscape rewards every hour you give it. This is prime habitat for the Samburu Special Five: Beisa Oryx, reticulated giraffe, Somali ostrich, gerenuk, and Grevy's zebra, animals that exist almost nowhere else in Kenya and move through this conservancy as though the land was shaped around them.

Tucked into the remote Matthews Range within Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy, Reteti Elephant Sanctuary is the first community-owned and managed elephant sanctuary in Africa. It sits among Kenya's second largest elephant population; a landscape that makes its purpose feel entirely natural.Like the world-renowned Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Reteti takes in orphaned and abandoned elephant calves, caring for them with the singular goal of returning them to the wild herds that roam the land surrounding the sanctuary.

Tens of thousands of Lichtenstein's sand grouse descend on the water in swarms; a spectacle so overwhelming to the senses that no photograph fully prepares you for it. The sound arrives before the birds do: a building rush of wings that fills the air and then, suddenly, the sky darkens with movement. For birdwatchers it is extraordinary. For everyone else, it is simply one of the most astonishing things this landscape produces on a daily basis.

Sera Community is also home to The Fifty Wells, ‘Kisima Hamsini’, a series of (50!) springs where local pastoralists take their livestock to water, digging up water from the wells to fill up holders and troughs. The Singing Wells are also a driving distance away and can be visited with some notice, a rare treat to see the local community singing proprietary songs recognisable only by their own cattle, to encourage them to come to the wells to drink.

As the day draws to a close, your guide will drive you to a panoramic viewpoint to watch the sun go down over the conservancy. Your favourite drink arrives, alongside a selection of small bites, and for a while there is nothing to do but sit with the landscape and let it settle into you. It is one of those unhurried safari rituals that sounds simple and feels extraordinary every single time.

At the heart of camp, a curved swimming pool follows the line of the dry riverbed, the perfect place to unwind after a morning tracking rhino on foot. It faces the waterhole directly, which means the resident elephant herds that come to drink each day become your backdrop. There are very few places in the world where you can swim while watching an elephant. This is one of them.

Just metres away from the comfort of your verandah at Saruni Rhino, there is a waterhole that attracts wildlife throughout the day and evening, when it is lit with a spotlight. Herds of elephants gather daily to enjoy the water, right in front of your eyes. Record sightings in one day has been over 60 elephants!