THE CAMP

Situated in the dry north of Kenya, in a land of endless rugged beauty and untamed wilderness, Elephant Watch Camp is perched on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro river beneath wide-spreading Kigelia and Acacia trees in Samburu National Reserve. It is home to some of the largest elephant bulls in Samburu who can often be spotted cooling down in the riverbed, resting in the shade, or hoovering up seedpods beside the tents.

A blaze of colour welcomes you to our eco-friendly camp, cleverly built out of recycled trees and logs. A multitude of birds and monkeys flash overhead, and at dawn a gentle chorus echoes through the bush announcing a new day in the wild. Everything about Elephant Watch is a feast for the senses, from the style of your room to the food on the table, and it is where your simple bush-life with nomads begins.

On arrival, tall, lithe men in red will greet you with a smile, and offer you ice-cold freshly squeezed juice. Bright cascades of cotton cloth bustle in the breeze, and expansive cushioned sofas and king-size beds provide your every comfort. This is an eco-camp in true style where we promote peace, beauty, gentleness, and simplicity, and where almost everything is organic. Responsible travel begins in our own backyard.

Each tent has its own bathroom built around a tree to give guests the novel experience of showering under the stars. We fill our beautifully hand-painted buckets to the brim with sun-heated water, and you can wrap up after your hot shower in a fluffy towel or colourful kanga robe.

Monkeys peek down through the leaves and elephants are never far away. It’s heavenly! But you need to remember there are no fences in our camp, so you have to learn how to be bush-wise. After dark, to ensure your safety, Samburu warriors escort you back and forth to your tent and will keep watch throughout the night. Your wide netted windows keep out the bugs but let all the sensations of nature flow through.

Whether walking in the vast, arid reserve or moving gently amongst the giants of the bush, nature feels closer here, more intense, and real. For a moment one can disregard the clutter of urban life and slip into a different skin. Soon enough you’ll feel reborn.

ECO DESIGN

Our environment is precious, fragile and threatened, and we humans are its guardians. At Elephant Watch Camp, our entire operation runs by our strict eco philosophy. We try hard to be green to the core. The sun powers all of our electricity, including our fridges and freezers. Water is hand-pumped from our on-site well, carefully distributed and then recycled. All of our buildings, including your luxury en-suite safari tent, are made with fallen trees or driftwood, solar-hardened earth plaster and sustainably-harvested palm thatch. Waste is carefully managed and recycled where possible.

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LUXURY TENTS

Our six spacious, netted tents at Elephant Watch Camp are specially designed to catch the breeze and ensure maximum privacy and protection. Each tent hangs under a wide thatched roof with it’s own verandah and stunning view. Inside, soft flowing cloths cascade to the floor that can be drawn across the windows at night.

CUISINE

We make and bake every bite of our delicious food on site to offer you a superb fusion of Italo-Afro-bush gourmet for which Elephant Watch is famous far and wide. Vegetables are sourced locally from the foothills of Mt. Kenya, and then spiced to perfection with herbs from our organic garden. The meat comes mostly from our organic farm in Naivasha, or from the lush cattle ranches of Laikipia, where livestock is pasture-raised and free to roam.

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WILDLIFE IN CAMP

Elephant Watch is eco-friendly in every aspect. There are no fences or boundaries separating us from Nature so many animals live alongside us in camp or are our neighbours. Bull elephants hang out in Camp quite a bit, especially after the rains, as this is when the Acacia tortilis trees come into fruit, sprinkling their highly nutritious seedpods onto the roofs of the tents. The elephants love to scoop these up with their trunks in big mouthfuls, so will often come very close to where you are sleeping at night. But there’s no need to fear – just relax in your bed, enjoy their presence and after a while you’ll fall gently back to sleep.