Skip to main content
We are delighted to inform you that Basecamp Explorer Kenya and Saruni lodges & camps have come together. Both Basecamp and Saruni combined have for the last four decades pioneered conservation practices and safaris in Kenya and both believe that Africa needs community-based approaches where local communities’ income from wildlife conservation leads to more entrepreneurial and educational opportunities.
Thanks to this significant coming together, Basecamp Explorer Kenya will expand its reach to Samburu in Northern Kenya, adding to its existing circuit of eco-luxury safari camps in Naboisho Conservancy and the Masai Mara National Reserve. Importantly, it will also become a member of Lemek Conservancy, Mara North Conservancy, Kalama Conservancy and Sera Conservancy, thus increasing its direct financial support to tens of thousands more members of local communities.
The coming together of Basecamp Explorer Kenya and Saruni lodges & camps will further advance these goals while offering guests a safari circuit of seven different properties in the Masai Mara and two in Northern Kenya. In addition, both will offer enriching experiences through special activities such as the exhilarating and unique experience of tracking endangered black rhino using traditional Samburu methods, advanced wildlife education programs through the Enjoolata! Centre, and active and wellness opportunities.
Basecamp and Saruni lead by example. They employ over 200 women and men directly in the lodges and camps, with 90% coming from the local communities. The combined wildlife area where Basecamp and Saruni operate in their respective Community Conservancies cover a total of 170,000 hectares. Both companies share a similar philosophy when it comes to hiring female guides and female managers as well as providing opportunities for career advancement.
Riccardo Orizio, Founder and CEO of Saruni stated “Basecamp has the vision, drive and ability to take Saruni to a higher level, ensuring long-term success to Saruni and expanding our common values”
Svein Wilhelmsen, Chair & Founder, Basecamp Explorer Kenya commended the alliance, ‘‘this exciting alliance comes at a significant point in the history of Basecamp as it looks to continually expand and develop the shared community and conservation values of both companies in Masai Mara and Samburu’’.
We shall continue to provide you with updates on the next steps of this dynamic partnership.
All Basecamp Explorer Kenya properties and Saruni properties will remain in operation and retain their current identities.
Saruni is today a company that own and runs four properties: Saruni Mara, the only small, boutique lodge in the Masai Mara, with five elegant cottages, one family villa and one private villa with a maximum of 18 guests making it very intimate and exclusive; Saruni Samburu, a six luxury, eco-chic villas lodge which is open and spacious, heralding spectacular views over Kalama Conservancy and Mount Kenya, considered by some as the most beautiful and innovative lodge in Kenya; Saruni Wild, a 3-tents only private camp elegantly and comfortably furnished with all the necessary luxuries of a wild yet classic safari. The camp is located in the heart of the Masai Mara plains, on the border between Lemek Conservancy and Mara North Conservancy. Saruni Rhino; an intimate lodge consisting of three open stone ‘banda’ cottages nestled on the edge of a dry river bed, in Sera Community Conservancy, Northern Kenya. The conservancy is also home to the only community-owned & run Rhino Sanctuary in East Africa in which Saruni guests can track 16 black rhino on foot in the safety of Saruni guides and Sera Rangers using traditional Samburu tracking methods.
We believe that Africa needs not only charity and emergency help, but honest, transparent, community-supportive entrepreneurship, where profits are made and used to create jobs and professional opportunities and to provide the people who own the land where wildlife is with equitable income. We have been founding members of Mara North Conservancy, the most ambitious conservation project in the Masai Mara ecosystem, and are part of NRT (Northern Rangelands Trust), the most important conservation project in Northern Kenya.