Isiolo

The gold standard of private conservation in Africa, Lewa spans 250 km² of rolling plains, swamp-fringed rivers, and acacia-dotted hills on the northern foothills of Mount Kenya. Once a cattle ranch, it pioneered the community-conservancy model in the 1980s, transforming pastoralist neighbours into stakeholders through education, healthcare, and enterprise — a template now replicated across the continent. Lewa holds 14% of Kenya’s black rhino population and the world’s single largest population of Grevy’s zebra, the elegant, large-eared equid endemic to the north. Elephants migrate through ancient corridors linking Mount Kenya to Samburu, their paths safeguarded by Lewa’s anti-poaching unit and its famous tracker dogs. The annual Safaricom Marathon, run through the conservancy with wildlife as spectators, has raised millions for conservation and community projects. To visit Lewa is to witness a living laboratory where wildlife, people, and landscape thrive in deliberate harmony.

Mount Kenya is Africa’s second-highest peak and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a majestic stratovolcano rising to 5,199 meters. Located near Nanyuki on the equator, the park encompasses a dramatic altitudinal range, from montane forest teeming with colobus monkeys and giant forest hogs to bamboo zones, Afro-alpine moorland, and finally, the glacial peaks. It is a trekker’s paradise, offering everything from gentle forest walks to challenging technical climbs. The landscape is otherworldly, with giant lobelias and groundsels dotting the high-altitude moorland. For those not summiting, the lower slopes provide exceptional wildlife viewing, including elephants and buffalo, with the mountain’s snow-capped summit as a breathtaking backdrop.

Samburu is Kenya’s rugged, untamed heart, a semi-arid wilderness along the Ewaso Ng’iro River in the country’s arid north. This reserve is a sanctuary for the ‘Samburu Special Five’: the reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra, gerenuk, Beisa oryx, and Somali ostrich—species uniquely adapted to this harsh, beautiful landscape. The dramatic scenery of doum palm groves, rocky kopjes, and riverine forests provides a starkly different safari experience from the southern parks. It is also a stronghold of the Samburu people, whose vibrant beadwork and pastoral traditions are deeply intertwined with the land. Samburu offers a more exclusive, off-the-beaten-path safari, where encounters with leopards and elephants against a backdrop of the Matthews Range feel profoundly intimate.