Tambarare Camp

Fly to Kamok if the timetable allows. It is the airstrip inside Ol Pejeta itself, about fifteen minutes by road from the camp, and AirKenya's scheduled service leaves Nairobi's Wilson airport for it at 9.45 each morning, landing around an hour later depending on how many strips the aircraft calls at on the way; the return leaves at 12.15. Safarilink flies twice a day to Nanyuki instead, at 8.00 and 10.20, but the camp quotes an hour and three quarters by road from Nanyuki, so we book Kamok unless we have to. The camp includes the transfer from either airstrip in its rate. We can also put you on a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, straight into Kamok at a time of your choosing, which is the way to arrive from the Mara or Samburu without a change in Nairobi.

Both airlines allow fifteen kilograms a person in soft-sided bags, hand luggage counted in, so a duffel travels better than a hard case and a long lens needs planning; a private charter can usually carry more. By road it is about 220 kilometres from Nairobi and four to five hours through Nanyuki, crossing the Equator on the way, and we can set that up as a private transfer if you would rather see the country.

Yes, treat it as a malaria area. The camp puts itself at roughly 1,700 metres, and both TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, and the CDC draw their line at 2,500 metres: TravelHealthPro classes Kenya as high risk apart from Nairobi city and the highlands above that height, and lists antimalarial tablets among its recommendations for everywhere else; the CDC names every part of the country below 2,500 metres, game parks included, as somewhere it recommends preventive medicine. Ol Pejeta sits well under the line.

We are travel planners rather than medical people, so that decision belongs with you and your doctor or a travel clinic, and the advice is updated often enough to be worth checking again close to departure. The practical side is easy: the beds are netted, the cool nights keep mosquito numbers modest, and the usual habits still apply after dark, long sleeves and trousers by the fire, repellent on bare skin, and a proper layer for the night drive.

Yes, at any age. The camp is run as a family camp, and the shape of the place bears that out: children under fifteen share a tent with an adult, three of the tents can be made up as triples, and the two-bedroom Private Villa on the other side of camp sleeps four with its own vehicle, guide, chef, waiter and housekeeper, so a family runs its days at its own pace. Between drives the guides teach children to shoot a bow and arrow, to name the plants and to see how local people use the shrubs and trees around them.

Ol Pejeta's own experiences carry age rules of their own, which we plan around. Lion tracking and the night drive take children, in a shared six-seat vehicle that needs four people to go out; the anti-poaching dog demonstration and the ranger run are for twelve and over; and the rhino monitoring patrol does not take children at all. Tell us their ages when you enquire and we will build the days around what they can actually do.

It does not close: the camp is open all year. It sits at roughly 1,700 metres on the Equator, so the days barely change through the year, with afternoons in the low to mid twenties under a strong sun, while dawn can be down near ten degrees and the camp warns that nights drop that low even in the warmest months. Nanyuki's own records make April the wettest month, at the centre of the long rains from March to May, with a second wet spell in October and November and some rain even in July and August; January and February are the driest months, and June to October is what the camp calls its dry season, when the grass browns off and the game gathers at the waterhole in front of the tents.

Pack in layers: a fleece or light down jacket and a warm hat for the dawn drive and the fire, and something warmer still for the night drive, which the conservancy itself tells you to dress warmly for; light, neutral clothing and a wide-brimmed hat for the middle of the day; high-factor sun cream, because the altitude sharpens the sun; and closed shoes with grip for the bush walk. The tents keep a pair of Leica binoculars for the veranda, so your own can stay at home unless you are particular about them, and everything goes in soft bags for the light aircraft.

Three nights at the least, and four if you want to do the conservancy properly, because Ol Pejeta's ranger-led experiences each take a fixed slot in the day and the rhino visit, lion tracking, the dog unit, the chimpanzees, a night drive and a walk cannot all fit around two game drives a day in a two-night stay. The camp's own long-stay savings begin at four nights and grow again at seven, and we pass those on in full.

The rate is full board with all drinks, spirits and premium brands included, two game drives a day, the visit to Najin and Fatu, the transfer to and from Kamok or Nanyuki airstrip, Ol Pejeta's bed-night levy and laundry. We include medical evacuation cover as standard. Charged on top are the conservancy's ranger-led experiences (the night drive, the bush walk, lion tracking, the dog unit, the community visit and the ranger run), your flights and landing fees, and road transfers to other camps. Ol Pejeta also charges a daily entry fee per person, counted in 24-hour blocks for overnight guests, with a child rate from three to eleven and under-threes free; the conservancy itself tells guests booking through a camp to check whether that fee is included, so we confirm it with Tambarare for every booking and show it as its own line in the quote rather than let it turn up as a surprise.

Yes. The conservancy itself charges per person for the hour with Najin and Fatu, and at Tambarare that charge is inside the rate rather than added to the bill. Ol Pejeta runs the visit in four fixed slots a day, at 8.30, 11.00, 3.00 and 4.30, so it has to be booked ahead rather than decided over breakfast; the two of them share their enclosure with a few southern white females and are relaxed enough around people to come close. We book it before you travel and set the day's drives around it.

The other ranger-led experiences work the same way, in fixed slots with at least a day's notice, and are charged per person on top of the camp's rate. Lion tracking goes out at 6.30 and 3.30 in a shared six-seat vehicle that needs four people to run, and the sightings you log go to the conservancy's monitoring team; the anti-poaching dog demonstration is once a day at 8.30; the night drive has two slots, at 7.00 and 9.00, in the same shared vehicle; and the Sweetwaters chimpanzee sanctuary is open to anyone who has paid the conservancy entry fee, with a small-group behind-the-scenes visit at 11.45 that means a mask and clean hands for the chimpanzees' sake. Every one of them is subject to the weather and to how the animals are on the day, which is another reason to give the camp three nights.