From December to March the camp stands below Naabi Hill in the southern Serengeti, on the short-grass plains where the wildebeest calve. In June it moves north to Kogatende, within a short drive of the Mara River crossings, and stays until October. Both positions are reached by light aircraft and an hour or so of game drive. In April, May and November it closes, the months the herds spend in transit.
The plains reclaim the flattened grass within days.
Eight tents and the mess are struck, carried and re-erected twice a year, the beds, tables and washstands built to fold flat for transit. The whole camp travels on a single truck. The plains reclaim the flattened grass within days. Most camps that call themselves seasonal still need cranes and shipping containers to move. Here the camp moves so guests need not drive to find the herds.
Ethan Kinsey grew up near Arusha. He has spent his career guiding and managing camps across Tanzania, in Ruaha and the Serengeti among them, and he founded Esirai with the naturalist Hagai Zvulun. Between them they built a camp that puts its weight on close, unhurried guiding rather than on fixed infrastructure, on the people in the vehicle rather than the buildings behind them.
A morning drive here gets explained, not narrated.
Guides come through a training programme that favours ecological and cultural storytelling over recited biology. A morning drive here gets explained, not narrated. We recommend a private guide and vehicle here, as we do across our safaris, so the drive goes where the interest of the morning takes it; shared game drives are available. Between drives, a library tent beside the mess holds field guides and natural history references, a rarity in a camp struck twice a year.
The southern plains sit on volcanic soil rich in phosphorus and calcium, which is why the wildebeest return to these particular short grasses to calve and not somewhere else along the route. From December to March the plains fill with newborns finding their legs, and with the predators that follow them. Cheetah and leopard work the kopjes around Naabi Hill, and a lion pride holds the ground there. Naabi Hill Gate, where the Ngorongoro highlands give way to open plain, stands close by.
From June the camp stands at Kogatende, close enough to the Mara River that a crossing can be reached in a morning rather than after hours of driving. Wildebeest gather on the banks for hours, sometimes days, before they commit to the water. Nile crocodiles are waiting when they do, hippos hold the pools between crossings, and lion prides work the corridors on both banks. The Nyamalumbwa Hills, a rhino protection area, lie in the same northern sector, where the country is undulating savannah broken by kopjes and old acacia woodland.
Wildebeest gather on the banks for hours, sometimes days, before they commit to the water.
Nights carry the sound of hooves, the bleating of calves and, some evenings, lions calling near the tents. Before dawn a thermos of Tanzanian coffee arrives quietly on the veranda. There is no guest Wi-Fi, no spa and no gym, and in their place is a sky with no light in it but its own. Water is heated and carried to a canvas bucket shower. At dusk everyone gathers at the fire, and dinner follows at one long table under white cloth, the talk running to whatever the day produced.
Days run on game drives, morning, afternoon or the whole of it, in open-sided vehicles. Balloons lift off before sunrise over the herds and come down to a bush breakfast. Fly-camping puts guests behind mesh walls with nothing else between them and the stars. Meals move with the day: breakfast on a kopje, lunch under an acacia, sundowners wherever the light is best that evening. The camp itself is canvas, local timber and brass, lit throughout by solar power, and night driving is not permitted inside the park, so after dinner the dark belongs to whatever is moving beyond the canvas.
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accommodation
Eight mobile tents, set as doubles, twins and interleading family units so guests can move between rooms without stepping outside after dark. Canvas walls, wooden beds, a washstand and a private veranda facing the plains. The furniture folds flat. Solar power throughout, with hot water carried to each tent for a bucket shower.
activities
Twice-daily and full-day game drives in open-sided vehicles, each with a private guide. Walking safaris operate under park rules with an armed guide and a ranger present; children under twelve cannot take part. Hot air balloon flights, fly-camping and bush breakfasts are available. Night driving is not permitted inside Serengeti National Park.
conservation
Young African filmmakers and photographers join field mentorships through AFRISOS, the African School of Storytelling, founded by Jigar Ganatra and Frank Papushka. An internship brings women and local community members into guiding and camp operations. Fabrics used in the mess and lounge come from Tanzania.
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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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
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Serengeti National Park
By light aircraft to Kogatende airstrip in the far north of the park, then about an hour by road, roughly forty kilometres, back into the woodland where the camp stands; the camp's packages include the transfer to and from Kogatende for the northern season. Coastal Aviation's timetable, valid to the end of May 2027, flies Arusha to Kogatende three times a day with a stop at Lake Manyara: leaving at a quarter to eight and landing at five past ten, at a quarter to eleven landing at a quarter to one, and at three landing at a quarter to six, with connections from Kilimanjaro at a quarter past eleven and from Dar es Salaam via Zanzibar at eight. Regional Air flies the route in the morning through the crossing season, and Auric Air links Kogatende direct to Zanzibar for anyone finishing on the coast.
We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, direct from Arusha or Kilimanjaro at a time that suits you, which puts a party on the ground by mid-morning for a first afternoon at the river. Soft bags only on the light aircraft, fifteen kilograms a person including hand luggage, and laundry is included in the packages we book.
The two official sources say the area calls for them. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, classes all of Tanzania below 1,800 metres as high risk for malaria, with no risk above, and lists antimalarial tablets and bite avoidance among its recommendations; the CDC draws its line at the same 1,800 metres, or 5,900 feet. Kogatende airstrip sits at roughly 1,400 to 1,500 metres and the riverine woodland around the camp is no higher, so the northern site is on the risk side for both.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so the decision on tablets is for you and your doctor or a travel clinic, a month or more before you fly. In camp: the tents are mesh-screened, the woodland by the water holds more insects at dusk than the open plains do, and June to October is the dry season, which helps.
Yes, with no published minimum age for staying, and the northern season is the one that offers a child the most. The family unit is two full tents joined by an enclosed corridor, so parents and children cross between them at night without going outside, and it sleeps five. The library tent keeps board games and field guides, and askaris escort everyone to and from the tents after dark in an unfenced camp where lions call across the water.
Walking safaris with an armed guide run from the northern camp only, for guests of twelve and over, so a child of that age can walk here where the southern season cannot offer it. Drives on the standard package are shared, two a day, and we book the private guide and vehicle for families so the crossing vigils and the early nights run on your own clock. Tell us the ages and we will be straight about what fits.
Not wifi. The camp runs without an online connection, and its manager stays in touch with head office, so a message can reach you in an emergency. Mobile signal in the north is patchy at best and nothing to plan around. Power is solar, and charging for phones and cameras happens at a station in the library tent rather than in the tents, so a spare battery is worth its weight.
One inspection reported a weak signal in the main tents; treat it as luck. Download what you want to read or watch before you fly, and if someone must be contactable we will plan a lodge with wifi either side of the camp.
Dry season, the whole way through. June and July bring the coldest dawns of the year, 14 degrees or so with the odd cold front colder still, and warm clear days in the mid-twenties; August and September are the classic crossing months, dry and dusty, with afternoons near 28; October is hotter and the first showers can arrive before the camp comes down. The woodland setting means shade in the middle of the day, which the plains camps do not have.
Pack a proper fleece and a windproof for the open vehicle at dawn, light neutral layers and a wide hat for the day, strong sun cream, a scarf or buff and a bag for the camera against the dust, closed shoes, a torch for the walk to the tent, and binoculars for the far bank. Laundry is included, so a soft bag of fifteen kilograms is enough. Crossings run from July into October and peak in August and September, and they are never promised, so we would hold three nights here so that a morning at the river can be repeated.
Three packages, and the vehicle is the difference. Full board covers the tent, all meals, water and a limited list of house wines, beers, spirits and soft drinks. The game-drive package adds two shared drives a day or one full day with a packed lunch, the transfers to and from Kogatende, and laundry; a walking safari can be added to it at this northern camp for a charge. The adventure package gives your party its own guide and vehicle throughout, a personal plan that can include the walking, plus the same transfers and laundry.
Outside every package are the park entry fees and the tourism levy, flights, balloon flights, which launch near Kogatende before dawn and need booking ahead, and drinks beyond the house list. We build the fees and flights into your quote from the start, and for the crossing months we book the private vehicle: timing at the river decides the day, and a shared vehicle keeps other people's hours.
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our approach
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