The Nest is one treehouse, built into a single Warburgia tree on the western bank of the Mara River in Kenya’s Maasai Mara. No vehicle comes near it. Guests reach it on foot, through a private walking area thick with trees, valleys and rock, and arrive to find the sides open and the deck looking straight down the river toward a resident hippo pool, roughly fifty metres away.
A leopard has scarred a nearby trunk with its claws.
Two nest-shaped double beds sit on an open deck, rain-proof and walled by nothing at all. A leopard has scarred a nearby trunk with its claws. An infra-red lamp and a night-vision camera are fitted to the platform, so it can be watched after dark along with the hyenas and the jackals, without a beam of white light near them. Candlelight and kerosene lanterns do the rest.
Guests walk out in the late afternoon with a guide, climb up through the branches and take sundowners on the deck as the light goes off the plains. Dinner follows, a simple bush supper carried out from camp and eaten by lantern light, with hippos grunting in the pool below. A flush toilet is up in the tree, a bucket shower at its foot on request. Then the staff walk back and leave the tree to its two occupants.
A fiery-necked nightjar calls, then wildebeest from the plain.
Sleep comes in stages, broken first by owls. A fiery-necked nightjar calls, then wildebeest from the plain. Coffee arrives at dawn, drunk in bed under a red Maasai blanket while mist lifts off the water below and elephant, zebra and wildebeest move down to drink. The walk back to camp doubles as the morning’s first game drive.
Alex Walker built his safari life around guiding. He was closely involved in the formation of the Mara North Conservancy, established on the first day of 2009, with 750 Maasai landowners leasing their land into it. In 2015 he was voted Best Guide in Africa. The Nest belongs to that thinking. It occupies Serian’s own private conservation area bordering the conservancy, ground thick with trees, valleys and rock and open to access only on foot, and the treehouse went up after a long search through it for the right tree.
A night in The Nest is taken in the middle of a stay somewhere else. Guests keep their tent at one of two camps in the same private area, Serian ‘The Original’ or Ngare Serian, leave their luggage there and walk out with a small bag for the night. It suits couples, and it suits families: there is floor space beside the two beds for a couple of extra bedrolls, though the open sides make it better suited to older children than to small ones. The whole arrangement is built for a single night out.
Hippos climb a worn path up the bank to graze, and impalas work a salt lick behind the tree.
The wider conservation area supports a pride of twenty lions, three leopards and fifty buffalo, and its four kilometres of river frontage act as dispersal ground for around 400 hippos. A resident pod holds the pool below the deck. Hippos climb a worn path up the bank to graze, and impalas work a salt lick behind the tree. A small sandy beach below the deck is used through the dark hours. Dawn brings birdsong from every direction, and zebra and wildebeest down to the water, with the river running on beneath it all.
The treehouse is open through the year. July to October brings the migration herds onto the river corridors and the dry-season concentration that goes with it. January to March is warm and clear, with dark skies away from any town glow. Being inside a private conservancy, not the national reserve, means walking, night drives and bush dinners are all permitted, so the treehouse fits naturally into a walking safari, or serves as a picnic stop halfway through one. Stars, hippos and a kerosene lamp make up the entire evening programme.
accommodation
One treehouse, sleeping two, with room for a couple more. Two nest-shaped double beds sit on an open timber deck built into the branches of a living Warburgia tree, under mosquito netting and duvets. A flush toilet is fitted up in the tree, a bucket shower on the ground below. It is rain-proof and open on every side.
activities
Walking is how The Nest is reached, and walking safaris across the private conservation area are the main pursuit here. Game drives run in Mara North Conservancy, where off-road driving and night drives are permitted, unlike the national reserve. Also on offer: fishing on the Mara River, photography and fly camping.
conservation
Mara North Conservancy, formed on 1 January 2009, pays fixed monthly leases to the 750 Maasai landowners whose land it covers, regardless of how tourism performs in a given year. The private walking area alongside it has recovered from past poaching and overgrazing. Guides and staff are drawn from the surrounding 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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No, and that is worth knowing before you set your heart on it. The Nest is a single treehouse built into a Warburgia tree above the Mara River, and it is taken as a night out in the middle of a stay at Serian or Ngare Serian rather than as accommodation you book on its own. Your tent at the camp stays yours while you are up the tree.
We build it into the itinerary as one night, usually placed where it will land best in the week rather than at the start, when most people are still finding their feet.
Two nest shaped double beds with room for extra bedrolls, a flush lavatory up in the tree, and a bucket shower below it on request. Light is candles and kerosene lanterns, so there is no switch to flick and no wifi at all. There is an infra red spotlight and a night vision camera for watching whatever comes to the water after dark.
It stands about fifty metres from the river in the Pusinkariak conservation area on the western bank, open to the air but built to hold off weather. Serian describe it as all weather and rain proof, which in practice means you sleep in the open without sleeping in the rain.
On foot, and only on foot. There is no road to The Nest, which is much of its character: you walk in from Ngare Serian with a guide, and the walk is part of the night rather than a transfer to be got through. It also works as a picnic stop built into a longer walking safari.
Because it is reached on foot in big game country, the walk is guided and timed to the light. Tell us if anyone in the party finds uneven ground difficult and we will say plainly whether it will suit them.
It can. Serian describe it as working either as a sleepover for the adventurous or as a family living out the treehouse idea, and the beds take extra bedrolls for that reason. Whether it is right for your children is a judgement about the particular children rather than a rule, because it is open sided, up a tree, above a river, reached on foot and lit by lantern.
Tell us their ages and what they are like, and we will give you a straight answer rather than an encouraging one. Where it is not the night for them, Ngare Serian below is.
Yes, and sleeping in the open is a reason to take the ordinary precautions seriously rather than a reason to avoid the night. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, and the American CDC both treat the whole of Kenya below 2,500 metres as a malaria area, with the game reserves named, and the Mara lies at roughly 1,500 to 1,900 metres. TravelHealthPro rates the country high risk and recommends antimalarial tablets for it; the CDC records transmission in all areas beneath that altitude. Only central Nairobi and the highlands above 2,500 metres are treated as exceptions. The advice is reviewed and can move, so check it near your departure date.
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.
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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.
