A safari that will touch your soul

If there is one country that is synonymous with big game it is Kenya. Here, veteran Africa hand Brian Jackman suggests a tour to inspire and thrill

‘In the highlands,” wrote Karen Blixen in Out of Africa, “you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.” Over the years I too have come to know that feeling, having shared it on many occasions, and it happens only in Kenya. The highlands Blixen was referring to are the Ngong Hills, just outside Nairobi, and the great plains of Maasailand that stretch down to meet Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. This is Hemingway’s Africa, hoisted 5,000 feet into the equatorial sky, where the climate is like the finest English summer’s day. I can think of no better place for a safari that will touch your soul.

Kenya, after all, is where safaris were born in the heyday of the big game hunters and the Kenyans have been refining and improving the concept ever since. Nairobi, an eight-hour flight from London, has always been regarded as the safari capital of Africa. Its Wilson Airport is the world’s busiest hub for light aircraft, with flights to all Kenya’s main safari destinations in less than an hour.

No other African country boasts a greater diversity of landscapes, from the deepfrozen glaciers of Mt Kenya to the burning semi- The Samburu tribe still roams on the lands close to the Elephant Watch Camp deserts of the wild north. The lodges I have chosen are among the finest you will find anywhere in Africa: Sosian on the Laikipia Plateau, Elephant Watch Camp in the Samburu National Reserve and Sala’s Camp in the Maasai Mara National Reserve offer a rich, intimate experience to lift your safari way beyond the norm. All three are family-run properties set in stunning locations whose total seclusion creates the feeling of living in your own exclusive African wilderness. Their design reflects the individuality of their owners who may join you for drinks or dinner to share their knowledge and passion for wildlife conservation. Their resident guides, so important to the success of any safari, are among the best in the business, and all game drives are conducted in custom-built, goanywhere vehicles, usually Toyota Land Cruisers, that provide maximum comfort and the best options for wildlife photography. This itinerary combines the very best of Kenya: a classic East African homestay on the Laikipia Plateau and opportunities to get to know the elephants of Samburu and to meet the big cats of the Maasai Mara. We begin at Sosian, a 24,000-acre private working ranch where 1,700 Boran cattle live cheek by jowl with Laikipia’s wildlife. Built in the Forties, its Argentine-style hacienda was converted from a dilapidated ruin to a haven of luxury in 2002. It is the perfect introduction to upcountry Kenya, a peaceful oasis of shady verandas and trim lawns surrounding a blissful heated swimming pool.

Formerly a fiefdom of private rangelands, the Laikipia Plateau is second only to Tsavo as Kenya’s biggest wildlife refuge. At twice the size of Norfolk, it is home to upwards of 6,000 elephants, 250 lions and half of Africa’s endangered black rhinos.

Here you can enjoy all kinds of activities not normally permitted in national parks and reserves: horseback riding and camel safaris to bush walks, wild swimming in the Ewaso Narok River and – Sosian’s most thrilling speciality – tracking wild dogs.

Our next stop is Elephant Watch Camp in the Samburu National Reserve, an arid wilderness the size of Britain, named after the desert tribe of warrior nomads who still follow their herds across the surrounding range lands. Here live the dry country animals of northern Kenya that make Samburu special: reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra and beisa oryx. All the top predators are here too. But, above all, Samburu is elephant country.

The camp is an exquisitely beautiful one-off. A fusion of luxury bush living and Bedouin bohemia on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro River, it is run with tremendous flair by film-maker Saba Douglas-Hamilton and her husband, Frank Pope. Saba’s father is Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the world’s leading authority on elephant behaviour, whose charity, Save the Elephants, has its HQ a few miles downstream.

Our tour finishes in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya’s premier big game stronghold. Come between mid-June and the end of October to witness the great Serengeti migration, the world’s most astounding wildlife spectacle when a million wildebeest and 200,000 zebras trek north from Tanzania for the dry season.

Even without the migration the Mara has unsurpassed game viewing. And for all the problems caused by Maasai pastoralists illegally driving thousands of cattle into the reserve after dark, I know of no other part of Africa where nevertheless big cats are so easy to observe, and that is why I have chosen Sala’s Camp for the final stop.

Sala’s enjoys the most remote location in the Mara and can accommodate up to 16 guests in seven glass-fronted tented suites, each with its own plunge pool and uninterrupted views of the Serengeti. Looking directly across the Sand River into the Serengeti National Park and offering superlative guiding and fine dining under the stars, there is nowhere else I would rather choose for the grand finale of a Kenyan safari. Land in Nairobi at 5am and transfer to Wilson Airport for the 10.20am Safarilink flight to Loisaba. Touch down 40 minutes later on a grassy strip on the edge of the Laikipia Plateau, and the sense of space and pure highland air will be enough to make your blood fizz like champagne.

Here you will be met and conveyed by Land Cruiser to Sosian (sosian.com), your luxury bush home for three nights. After lunch and a siesta, take a game drive in search of the local lion pride before fireside drinks and a candlelit dinner with your hosts: Daisy Soames and Simon Kenyon, who was born on his family’s farm in Laikipia.

Wake at dawn to go looking for Sosian’s two thriving packs of wild dogs. Some have been fitted with radio collars for scientific research. There is no better place for tracking down these endangered carnivores, especially with Ambrose Lochilia, Sosian’s veteran safari guide.

Take a picnic breakfast and, with luck, you will find the dogs hunting. What extraordinary creatures they are with their brindled coats and ears like radar dishes. They cover the ground at an effortless trot until, without warning, there is a sudden explosion of movement as they seize their prey and

At ease at the Sosian lodge