Mikey and Tanya Carr-Hartley found a glade under Warburgia trees on the Sand River. Poachers from across the border had used it to dry bushmeat, and old bones still turned up where the mess tent now stands. The first guests came in 2004.
Elephants cross the dry Sand River within sight of the tents.
Today seven glass-fronted tents spread along that riverbank in the far south of the Maasai Mara National Reserve, facing the hills of Tanzania. Elephants cross the dry Sand River within sight of the tents. Between July and October the migration herds usually arrive from the Serengeti, and the camp is still a family affair, with children of all ages welcome.
Guides here come mostly from the surrounding Maasai community, and they know a quiet corner of the reserve, well away from the busier central Mara. Outside the migration months the residents carry the drives. Lions and leopards are joined by cheetahs, and along the river the buffalo and giraffes share the banks with elephants. Black rhinos live here too.
When the Sand River runs dry, its bed turns into a playing field.
Each of the two family tents comes with its own vehicle, so a family’s drives keep to their own clock and stop for a picnic wherever they please. When the Sand River runs dry, its bed turns into a playing field. Guides teach children to read lion and hyena tracks in the sand and to make a bow and arrow, and later the same stretch hosts games of volleyball and boules.
The seven tents on the bank today were built around trees already growing there. Each has a glass front that gives onto a broad timber deck and a plunge pool above the river. Sleeping, bathing and lounge areas are set apart. Antique stools and furniture share space with Maasai beadwork, and recycled bottle glass and salvaged materials have been put to new use.
Afternoon drives often end out in the bush, at a vintage mobile bar, parked up for sundowners. Back in camp, drinks gather round the fire pit before dinner, which is served in the mess tent at a table cut from a single slab of fallen African rosewood. Much of the produce comes from the kitchen garden. Some evenings the tables move down into the dry riverbed by candlelight. By day, breakfast and lunch are laid on the lawn or the river deck, wherever the light falls best.
Patrols lifted hundreds of wire snares from the bush around the old bushmeat clearing.
Anti-poaching was part of the camp from its first months. Patrols lifted hundreds of wire snares from the bush around the old bushmeat clearing. That work continues through the Mara Rhino Rangers, to whom every guest night contributes, and a vehicle and driver are kept ready for their use. The camp and its conservation trust have funded two operations to ear-notch and GPS-tag black rhinos, so that each can be individually identified. Camera traps feed EarthRanger and Kenya’s national rhino database.
Inside the national reserve, game drives keep to park rules, and walking is limited to short guided outings around camp to look at birds and plants and read the tracks. Full days with a picnic lunch reach the wider reserve, and a dawn balloon flight can be booked in advance. Between drives there are two spa treatment rooms and a bush gym. One footbridge crosses a small stream within camp.
accommodation
Seven tents line the riverbank at Sala's Camp. Five are doubles, two of them honeymoon tents, and two are family tents. Every tent is glass-fronted and opens onto a shaded timber deck with a private plunge pool facing the river. The lounge is separate from the bedroom.
activities
Maasai guides lead game drives in open vehicles on the reserve's roads, morning and afternoon, or as full days with a picnic. Walks are short guided outings around camp. Beyond the drives come bush breakfasts and sundowners, tracking and games in the dry riverbed, stargazing and yoga, and a dawn balloon flight booked ahead.
conservation
The camp was a founding partner of The Pangolin Project and hosted its research team. Guest stays support the Mara Rhino Rangers, and the camp helped fund rhino tagging and EarthRanger work with Narok County Government. It also backs the Mara Predator Conservation Programme, along with dental and medical clinics for Maasai communities.
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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By light aircraft from Nairobi's Wilson airport to the Keekorok airstrip in the south of the Masai Mara National Reserve. The scheduled Mara services leave Wilson in the morning and the afternoon every day and drop at several strips in turn, so landing times move a little. The camp meets you at Keekorok, and that road transfer is part of the stay.
The scheduled aircraft take soft bags only, fifteen kilograms a person with hand luggage counted in. For your own timings we can arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, landing at Keekorok at the hour that suits you, which also makes it simple to fly on to another part of Kenya the same day.
At the southern tip of the Masai Mara National Reserve, on the tree-lined banks of the Sand River, less than two kilometres from the border with Tanzania. The tents look south across the border into the Serengeti. The camp is inside the national reserve, not in one of the private conservancies on the Mara's northern edge, and a long way south of the Talek and the camps clustered along it.
The herds coming north from the Serengeti usually reach the Mara between July and October, and the southern reserve along the border lies on their way in. In the other months the south keeps its resident game: lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, buffalo and black rhino, which the Mara Rhino Rangers follow with ear tags and camera traps.
Morning and afternoon drives are the core of each day, and the camp fills the hours between them well. Guides lead short nature and birding walks around camp, so you never walk alone. Breakfast can be cooked out on the plains, sundowners are poured on the savannah, and on some nights dinner is laid on your own deck or, when the river is dry, down in the sandy riverbed.
The camp also has a spa with two treatment rooms and a small bush gym. A hot-air balloon flight at dawn is the main extra, best booked when you book the camp. Sala's was a founding partner of The Pangolin Project, which studies the Temminck's ground pangolin, an animal few safari travellers ever see, and a visit to the research team can be arranged on request.
Yes, and children of every age are welcome. Two of the seven tents are family suites, and a family staying in one of them has a vehicle and guide to itself for the whole stay, so drives start, pause and finish at the children's pace. Every tent has its own plunge pool for the hot middle of the day, which younger children will need watching around.
The dry bed of the Sand River below the tents turns into a playground: reading animal tracks in the sand, volleyball and games, and making a bow and arrow with one of the Maasai guides. Tell us the children's ages at enquiry and we will shape the days around them.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates Kenya as high risk for malaria and recommends antimalarial tablets for all of it except Nairobi city and the highlands above 2,500 metres. The American CDC uses the same height line and lists the game parks among the risk areas. The Mara lies well below that line in every season, the Sand River in the south of the reserve included.
We are travel planners, not doctors, so whether to take tablets, and which would suit you or a child, is a decision for you with your own doctor or a travel clinic. In camp, the hour on the deck at dusk is the time for long sleeves, trousers and repellent.
January and February, and again July to October. Early in the year the grass is short after the short rains, resident lion, cheetah and leopard are easier to follow, and there are far fewer visitors. From July the dry season is at its height and the migration herds are usually in the Mara. June is a good shoulder month as the plains dry out.
November and December are underrated: the short rains turn the plains green, the light is clear after the storms and the reserve is quiet, which suits photographers. The long rains from March to May are the hardest months for game viewing, April the wettest, and Sala's Camp closes for part of April and May each year.
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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.
