Karisia Walking Safaris

You fly from Nairobi's Wilson airport to a northern Laikipia airstrip, around an hour by light aircraft, and the team meets you to begin the walking safari from their Tumaren base north of Mount Kenya.

We arrange the flights and the timing as part of the trip. If you would rather fly privately, we can charter a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12 for the leg, timed to your international arrival into Nairobi.

The bush planes take soft bags only, about fifteen kilograms per person including hand luggage, which suits this style of travel where everything moves by camel anyway. A road transfer from Nairobi is also possible.

It is a lower-risk malaria area, not a malaria-free one. The high, dry Laikipia country keeps mosquito activity down, but it sits below the altitude at which the CDC and TravelHealthPro regard risk as negligible, so most travellers are advised to take antimalarial tablets.

We do not make medical recommendations, and we would not want to. We arrange travel; we are not doctors. Which tablets suit you, how they sit with anything else you take, and what is right for a child are questions for your own doctor or a travel clinic. On the practical part, dusk is the hour that matters, so long sleeves, long trousers and repellent are worth the packing space.

You are walking eight to sixteen kilometres a day at altitude, so expect warm, dry days and cold mornings and nights, with the sun strong once it is up. The rains green the bush and can make the going heavier underfoot.

Pack broken-in walking boots, a warm layer for the mornings, a sun hat and high-factor sun cream, neutral colours, and a light daypack. Keep the rest to a soft bag, since the camels carry the camp and the comfort is deliberately simple.

The dry months, July to September and December to February, make for the best walking, with firm ground, clear skies and game drawn to water. The green seasons bring fine birding and a softer landscape, though the walking can be wetter.

This is a year-round camp, but if the walking itself is the point, the dry season gives you the easiest conditions on foot.

You walk across the highlands at an easy pace while a string of camels carries the camp, water and supplies ahead of you, so each day ends at a new site with lunch already set out. Distances run roughly eight to sixteen kilometres a day, adjusted to your group, and there is a camel to ride whenever legs tire.

It is a gentle rather than a strenuous trip, but it does ask that you are happy on your feet for a few hours a day, so it helps to be reasonably fit and to break in your boots beforehand. The reward is travelling at ground level with Samburu, Maasai and Ndorobo guides who read spoor and name the birds as you go.

It can be, and several of the tents are set up for families. The slow, ground-level pace and the camels make it an unusual and memorable trip for children old enough to enjoy walking, with tracking, fire-making and birding along the way rather than long hours in a vehicle.

The daily distances and the wild setting mean it suits some ages far better than others, so tell us how old your children are and how far they are happy to walk, and we will plan a route and pace that fits.