Twelve guests take Ol Malo House as one group, spread between a main house and two cottages on the lip of a rock escarpment in the Laikipia Highlands, high above the Ewaso Ng’iro river. The chef, the guide, the vehicles and the infinity pool all come with the house, and no schedule is printed anywhere. Mornings are settled over breakfast: who rides, who stays by the pool, who drives out after a leopard.
Baboons bark across the rock faces at first light.
Horses and camels carry guests out across the plains below, over open ground and up into mountain trails, and the riding suits novices as readily as experienced hands. Wild game reads a mounted rider differently, so greater kudu, reticulated giraffe and Grevy’s zebra hold their ground instead of bolting. Baboons bark across the rock faces at first light. Elephants work the valley floor far beneath the escarpment.
Colin and Rocky Francombe bought an overgrazed cattle ranch in 1991 and moved onto it, living under canvas while they cleared and rebuilt the land. Three generations of the family now live along the same escarpment. Their son Andrew designed and built Ol Malo House himself, and he and his wife Chyulu host it today.
Three generations of the family now live along the same escarpment.
Ol Malo Lodge is five minutes away, four cottages sold individually by the room and hosted by Colin and Rocky, better suited to couples. The house is separate in every practical sense, with its own kitchen, staff, guide and pool for whoever books it. Andrew’s hand shows in the spiral staircase climbing to the star deck, and in the stone bath in Crocodile Cottage, sculpted with ridges, teeth and a tail.
The land is the family’s own ranch and conservancy, not a national park, so the day goes where the group wants it: off-road after a sighting, out on foot with Samburu guides reading tracks and naming medicinal plants, under a spotlight after dark, or down to the riverbed on camels. The Ewaso Ng’iro does the rest, with inner tubes over the rocky rapids, line fishing for catfish and barbel, and lunch laid out under the fig trees on the bank. Meals come off the ranch itself: organic beef and lamb, milk, eggs and vegetables from the gardens.
Andrew flies, which puts Lake Turkana within a single day. Helicopter days run doors-off, down through the river gorges and out over the sand dunes of the northern frontier, until the Jade Sea opens ahead and the machine settles on a wild shore for a swim. Fishing there turns up Nile perch and tiger fish. Anyone who wants to stay the night sleeps at a lantern-lit camp on the lake’s South Island.
Andrew and Chyulu run the house at whatever pace suits the group in it
Children of any age are welcome, and the house was built with them in mind, though it is the nights out they remember. The Leopard Hide is set into a rock crevice above a floodlit waterhole. Bunks and viewing ports look down onto it, and the Treehouse is an open platform up in an acacia, mosquito nets and stars overhead. Days fill with spear throwing and tracking lessons, milking the dairy cows and collecting eggs, then the pool. Samburu child-minders can be arranged with notice. The Samburu Trust, founded by Andrew’s sister Julia, runs a school and clinic on the ranch alongside its beadwork and conservation work.
Getting there is a choice: scheduled flights from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport to Loisaba and a road transfer of under an hour, or a private charter direct onto Ol Malo’s own airstrip. The house closes in April, May and November for the rains. The Laikipia Highlands drop away northwards here toward the frontier country, and at roughly 1,600 metres the air stays dry through the day, cooling by evening to a fire in the sitting room, cedar smoke, hot chocolate for some and whisky for others, after an afternoon on the river. Andrew and Chyulu run the house at whatever pace suits the group in it.
accommodation
Ol Malo House holds six en-suite bedrooms for up to twelve guests. Three of them ring the main house, with its stone fireplaces, sitting room, spiral stair and star deck. Hippo Cottage has two bedrooms and a shared sitting room. Crocodile Cottage stands alone on the escarpment edge, with the sculpted stone bath and olive-wood fittings.
activities
Private vehicles for day and night game drives, off-road where a sighting leads, since this is the family's own ranch and conservancy rather than a national park. Horse riding and camel treks for novices and experienced riders, guided walks with Samburu trackers, river tubing and fishing on the Ewaso Ng'iro, helicopter excursions to Lake Turkana, bush breakfasts and sundowners.
conservation
The Samburu Trust, founded by Julia Francombe in 2000, runs a school and health clinic on the ranch, digs water catchments, treats trachoma, and trains Samburu Warrior Scouts as wildlife guardians and anti-poaching support. Its Beads for Food programme has Samburu women, the Mamas, teaching traditional bead-making to guests in exchange for sustainable income.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
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The ranch has its own airstrip, so the cleanest arrival is a private charter from Nairobi's Wilson Airport straight to it, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, and with a house that sleeps twelve the cost of the aircraft spreads across the party.
The alternative is a scheduled flight to Loisaba, about an hour in the air from Wilson, followed by 45 to 50 minutes on ranch roads to the house. Both are soft-bag routes: the scheduled services hold you to 15 kilograms a person including hand luggage, and hard suitcases are refused at check-in.
Andrew Francombe is a qualified helicopter pilot, which matters less for arriving than for what you can do once there: a day to Lake Turkana or the Rift Valley is possible from the house without a long road journey either side. Tell us the shape of the party and we will cost the charter against the scheduled flight for you.
Either. Six bedrooms are spread across three buildings, the main house and two cottages a short walk from it, and the house is let both as one exclusive unit for up to twelve and to two separate parties at the same time.
Taken whole, everything in it is yours: the kitchen and its chef, the guide and vehicle, the pool, the timetable. With two parties in, the main house and the cottages divide naturally between them, and the pool and the living rooms are shared.
Our honest view is that it works best whole. A family of eight or three couples travelling together get the house at its real value, which is a ranch home run around one group. If you are two people, the four-cottage lodge five minutes away, hosted by Andrew's parents, is the better fit and we would say so.
Yes, and it is arguably the best use of it. Children of all ages are welcome, one of the rooms in the main house is made with children in mind, and because the house has its own kitchen and staff there is no dining room clock to keep: supper can be at six for the children and nine for the adults.
The ranch is a working family home where the family's own children are growing up, and the days that suit small people are all here: camels to ride, the river to tube when the water allows, gentle rides on the ranch's horses, and a visit to the Samburu Trust's school on the ranch.
Tell us the ages when you enquire. A five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old want different days, and the difference between a good family week and a great one is usually in the planning rather than the place.
Two ways of sleeping out on the ranch without leaving it. The Treehouse is a platform for a night under the stars, bedded down above the ground; the Leopard Hide is a built hide in which you can spend the night instead. Both are arranged from the house, so a party can send the teenagers out for a night while the rest stay by the fire.
Nights here are cold whatever the daytime says, so it is a warm-layers outing at any time of year. If small children are going out, tell us and we will confirm the arrangements with the house before you travel rather than leave it to the evening.
You can, and you do not. Riding from the house takes all levels and non-riders, on the ranch's own horses, with Andrew and Chyulu both experienced riders and guides.
There is a rider weight limit of 90 kilograms, and anyone over it or not keen on horses rides a camel or walks beside one instead. The plains below the escarpment are the sort of country where a ride replaces a game drive rather than adding to it.
Multi-day riding, moving camp by horse and camel through the valley and across the plateau, is a different product, the family's mobile camp, and wants confident riders. If that is the trip you are picturing, tell us and we will build it around nights at the house.
By the official measure, yes. TravelHealthPro, which carries the UK's official travel health advice, and the American CDC both treat all of Kenya below 2,500 metres as malaria risk throughout the year, game areas included, and both recommend antimalarial tablets for it; only the highlands above that line and the centre of Nairobi are rated very low.
The house stands at about 1,600 metres on the escarpment, so it sits under the line rather than above it, and the Ewaso Ng'iro runs in the valley below.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, and we do not make recommendations about medication. Which tablets, if any, suit you and everyone in your party, children included, is a conversation for your own doctor or a travel clinic, ideally with your dates in front of you.
The non-medical part we can speak to: the pool and the star deck come into their own at dusk, which is exactly the hour for long sleeves and repellent.
rated five stars by our clients
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our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
