Reteti House stands on a cliff edge in the Namunyak Community Conservancy of Northern Kenya, a ten-minute walk from the elephant sanctuary that gives the place its name. The sanctuary is owned and run by the Samburu community around it. Below the lodge a waterhole draws wild herds, and most days the sanctuary’s orphaned calves are brought down to bathe and drink within sight of the pool.
The sanctuary is owned and run by the Samburu community around it
The whole lodge is held for one party at a time, up to sixteen guests, and that arrangement sets the pace of the day. Feeding times at the sanctuary are reserved for whoever is in residence, and meals and activities bend around the guests rather than a fixed timetable. Among the Samburu keepers here are the first women in the region ever to work directly with the calves, a quiet break with how things were always done.
Katie Rowe co-founded the sanctuary in August 2016, her husband’s family having run the original Sarara lodge in Namunyak since 1997. What began as a rescue operation for abandoned calves grew into a working demonstration of Samburu-led conservation, funded in part by the guests who stay a short walk uphill. Reteti House was built to give that work a close vantage point.
Reteti House was built to give that work a close vantage point
Namunyak spreads across roughly 850,000 acres in the foothills of the Mathews Range, a redder, more open country than the Kenya most visitors picture. A large elephant population moves through it. With a little patience you may find reticulated giraffe and Grevy’s zebra, kudu shading in the thickets, a leopard slipping through the rock, though sightings can be sporadic. The appeal rests as much on the landscape and the people as on high-density game.
Ownership of the lodge sits with the Samburu of Namunyak, who also manage the conservancy and the sanctuary. Tourism income pays the ranger salaries, protects the habitat and carries the community programmes, among them nomadic Montessori schools and a mobile healthcare service. It also drives the Milk to Market scheme, under which Samburu women sell goat’s milk to the sanctuary as calf feed and earn an income from it. Reteti House is one of four Sarara camps across Namunyak, and of them all it sits closest to the elephants.
Namunyak’s relationship with the Northern Rangelands Trust, the umbrella body that has helped establish and support many of Kenya’s community conservancies, grew strained over questions of governance and transparency. In 2022 those ties came to an end, and the community now runs the conservancy and the sanctuary directly. For guests the practical result is straightforward. The guides who walk with them and the keepers at the sanctuary all belong to the community that owns the land beneath their feet.
Samburu women sell goat’s milk to the sanctuary as calf feed and earn an income from it
Rock, timber and thatch form the lodge itself, built into the cliff so that the bar leans against the bare rock face and the infinity pool hangs above the valley. The interiors draw on Samburu design, all neutral tones and natural textures, with a circular motif borrowed from traditional homesteads recurring throughout. The whole place runs off-grid, its solar power stored in a battery system and its water gravity-fed from mountain springs. A single team of guides, chefs and hosts looks after one group at a time, closer to being hosted at a private home than checked into a lodge.
Days move between the sanctuary and the wider conservancy. Egyptian vultures and klipspringers work the cliffs, resident leopards patrol below, and the sound of elephants at the waterhole carries up to the pool deck. Evenings settle around the fire, where Samburu guides talk through the day’s tracks and the history of the elephant rescues. Meals follow the group’s own rhythm, cooked from fresh regional produce and served in the open-fronted dining area or out under the stars, timed around feeds, walks and children rather than a set hour.
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accommodation
Reteti House sleeps up to sixteen guests across six units. Four standalone suites open onto outdoor showers and private terraces with the valley wide before them. Beneath the main area, an open-plan family room sleeps four around an indoor shower, while a two-bedroom family suite links two en-suite rooms through a shared lounge and verandah, built with multi-generational groups in mind.
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activities
Reserved feeding times and behind-the-scenes visits at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary sit at the centre of a stay. Out in the Namunyak conservancy, guides lead day and night game drives, walk you through the bush and up into the Mathews Range, put you on horseback, take you to the singing wells and sit you down to bead with Samburu women. For the more remote corners of the conservancy, fly-camping and helicopter excursions can be arranged.
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conservation
Income from Reteti House supports the community-run Reteti Elephant Sanctuary, which rescues and rehabilitates orphaned calves and employs Samburu keepers, including the region's first female keepers. Alongside it, the Sarara Foundation runs the Milk to Market goat's-milk scheme, nomadic Montessori schools and a mobile healthcare programme.
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.
You fly from Nairobi's Wilson airport to an airstrip in the Namunyak Conservancy of northern Kenya, around an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half by light aircraft, and the house meets you for the transfer to its cliffside above the elephant waterhole. We build the flights into your itinerary. We can also fly this leg as a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, direct to the conservancy strip on your own timings.
The bush planes take soft bags of around fifteen kilograms per person including hand luggage, so pack a duffel. This is remote country in the foothills of the Mathews Range, so the flight is much the easier way in.
Yes, though a lower-risk one than the coast. The Namunyak country is hot and semi-arid, which keeps mosquito numbers down, but it sits below the altitude at which the CDC and TravelHealthPro regard malaria risk as negligible, so antimalarial tablets are usually advised, with the risk higher after rain.
Because this is a health matter and guidance is reviewed regularly, please confirm the current position with a travel clinic or your doctor before you travel, and take the usual care against bites after dark.
This is redder, more open country than the Kenya most visitors picture, hot and dry with warm days and milder nights than the highlands, and a good deal of dust. The rains green the land and can make the tracks heavy.
Pack light, breathable clothes in neutral colours, strong sun protection and a hat, a light layer for early mornings, and closed shoes for the walking. Swimwear is worth having for the pool above the valley.
The dry seasons suit this country best, when the remote tracks firm up, wildlife gathers around permanent water and the skies stay clear, with June to October the strongest window and January to March also good. The rains green the land and lift the birding, at the cost of muddy roads.
Because access depends on the tracks in such remote country, the dry months are the more reliable time to plan a visit, though a large elephant population moves through Namunyak year round.
The house was built as a base for the community-run elephant sanctuary a short walk uphill, where orphaned calves are cared for by Samburu keepers, among them the first women in the region to do this work. Most days the calves are brought down to the waterhole below the house to drink and wallow.
The practical draw is access. Because the house takes one group at a time, its guests get reserved feeding times and behind-the-scenes visits that day visitors do not, so you see the work close up and on your own schedule. That is the reason most people choose to stay here rather than nearby.
It is a strong choice for families and multi-generational groups. The whole house is held for one party of up to sixteen guests, so children have the run of it with no other guests nearby, and it is built with families in mind, with an open-plan family room sleeping four and a two-bedroom family suite. The orphaned elephant calves are about as good as a family wildlife experience gets.
Walking and the more remote outings carry age limits, so tell us your children's ages and we will shape the days around them and keep the pace to suit the youngest.
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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.
