Naibor Wilderness

You fly in. Scheduled services run from Nairobi's Wilson airport to Ol Kiombo, the strip that serves this stretch of the Talek, and the leg takes around forty five minutes, sometimes longer when the aircraft calls at another Mara strip first. The drive from the strip to camp is short and follows the river. Where you would rather not work to a timetable we can put on a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, which goes direct.

Bags on the light aircraft must be soft and are limited to fifteen kilograms a person, hand luggage and cameras counted in. A duffel is the right thing, a wheeled hard case is not.

Yes. Naibor Wilderness has three tents, and it can be booked tent by tent or taken whole by one party, which is what most families and groups of friends choose to do. Taking it whole means the camp, its staff and the rhythm of the day answer to you rather than to a mixed camp: breakfast when you come back rather than at a set hour, and the vehicle out for as long as the morning is worth staying out for.

Tell us the shape of the party when you enquire and we will price both ways, because with six people the difference is often smaller than people assume.

Yes. Nothing about the Mara makes it an exception. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, and the American CDC both count the whole of Kenya below 2,500 metres as malaria country, with the game reserves named among the areas that carry risk, and this stretch of the Talek lies at roughly 1,500 to 1,900 metres. TravelHealthPro puts the country in its high risk category and recommends antimalarial tablets; the CDC reports transmission everywhere below that altitude. Central Nairobi and the highlands above 2,500 metres are the only places treated differently. Both services review their advice, so look at what they say close to your departure rather than relying on an old trip's notes.

We do not give medical advice. We are travel planners rather than doctors, so the choice of tablets, and whether they suit everyone in the party, belongs in a conversation between you and your own doctor or a travel clinic. What we can be useful on is the non-medical part: cover up once the light goes, and carry repellent.

Children of eight and up are welcome, and younger ones are considered on request rather than taken as read. The camp is unfenced and sits on the bank of the Talek inside the reserve, so a child is never left without an adult beside them. Safari walks are closed to under twelves, which is a rule about being on foot among big game rather than anything about the camp itself.

Early dinners for children are normal here, and child minding can be arranged if it is asked for in advance. Since the camp can be taken whole by one party, it suits a family better than most.

Higher than people picture, and colder at dawn than they pack for. Afternoons usually reach the middle twenties, nights fall to eleven or twelve degrees, and sitting in an open vehicle at first light takes several degrees off that again. The long rains run from about March into May, with April the wettest, and the short rains fall across November and December, more often a heavy afternoon hour than a lost day.

Bring layers you can peel off: a base layer, a fleece, a windproof jacket, long trousers, a hat and sunglasses for the hard high altitude light. It all has to fit the fifteen kilogram soft bag allowance on the flight in.