Let's face it, the idea of camping is great but the reality can be something else. All that communing with nature, fresh air, bacon sizzling over the camp fire comes at a price - and the price is often having to put up the tent (where are those pesky tent pegs!), getting the camp fire going, chopping the wood. It's not everyone's cup of tea but what if your tent was the last word in comfort (and someone else put it up), with proper beds, hot showers, and delicious meals prepared for you?
Luxury Camping in Kenya - Camping in Comfort
There's plenty of luxury camping around for those of us who are softies when it comes to roughing it, and some of the best are in Kenya.
Keats wrote about “love in a hut, with water and a crust”. You can certainly have love in a hut here, but “hut” is a modest name for the luxury tents provided in most safari camps
Below are two examples of what is on offer, but there are many more to suit all tastes and requirements.
Luxury Camping in Kenya - Sweetwaters Tented Camp
Sweetwaters is a tented camp in the heart of Ol Pejeta Sweetwater Conservancy and the tents are huge, furnished with double beds and all mod cons. They overlook a waterhole on a vast savannah, the 22,000 acre Sweetwaters Game Reserve. Each tent has a private verandah where you can sit and watch the animals. Giraffes, zebras, wild boar, antelope and many others, wander around just a few metres from your tent.
There’s a ditch between the game reserve and the camp with an electric fence to prevent the animals from getting too close. In the event that you might just feel like doing something energetic there are also game drives and walking safaris on offer. Or you can just sit on your verandah, binoculars in one hand, sundowner in the other and watch the animals come to the waterhole as the sun sets.
Luxury Camping in Kenya - Mara Intrepids Tented Camp
The Mara Intrepids Camp is located in the centre of the Masai Mara National Reserve, on the banks of the Talek River, and near one of the major wildlife migration crossings. The tents are covered with thatched roofs for maximum coolness. There are proper beds - large and comfortable, and verandahs where you can sit in the evening and listen to the sounds of the bush all around you. Many have their own small bathrooms at the back, with solar-heated hot water. But this luxury does not distract from the feeling of being in the heart of Africa.
At night the rustlings in the bush show that you are sharing this world with the animals who live here permanently. The sounds of Africa are all around. Birds call from the trees which surround the tents, and the river bank baboons chatter as they make their way upstream, babies hanging from their backs. brilliantly coloured butterflies cover the trees. It’s a tranquil and very romantic place.
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