Shu’mata is the Maasai word for heaven, and the ridge earns it. Kilimanjaro fills the view from the tents and the dining terrace, rising above Maasai grazing land on the Tanzanian side of the Amboseli ecosystem. The camp sits in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area of West Kilimanjaro.
Elephant herds walk through this country most days of the year.
The elephants’ route runs between Amboseli in Kenya and the mountains of Kilimanjaro and Meru, and the camp works with the Maasai villages to keep it open. Elephant herds walk through this country most days of the year. Morning and afternoon drives in open vehicles follow them on to Kilimanjaro’s lower slopes, across grass plains they share with eland and oryx, zebra and wildebeest, giraffe and gazelle.
Jörg Gabriel came to Tanzania in the 1990s. He guided in Tanzania’s parks, and wrote German guidebooks to the country. For more than twenty years he and Marlies have run Hatari Lodge at Momella, and Shu’mata is its wilder partner, an hour and a half’s drive away. Their son Donyo grew up in Arusha National Park, and now works alongside them.
At sundown comes spear throwing with the camp’s Maasai team
Shu’mata, too, follows its elephants on foot as well as by vehicle. An armed ranger leads the Walk in the Footsteps of Elephants along the paths the herds use, and a Maasai guide takes the naturalist walk up the sundowner hill. From the top, Kilimanjaro, Meru and Longido are all in view. At sundown comes spear throwing with the camp’s Maasai team.
On the Kili for All day, guests trade the plains for the Shira Plateau, inside Kilimanjaro National Park, walking at 3,500 metres through high moorland where giant heather takes the place of acacia. By evening the same mountain is back on the horizon, seen from the tent veranda. Lower down, drives on the Enduimet rangelands can stop for a bush breakfast, a table laid in open grass with Kilimanjaro behind it.
Most of the team are Maasai, and the camp runs on solar power alone. With no generator running, the nights carry the sound of elephants out on the plains. Closer in, wind moves through the grass and crickets start up around the tents. The fire is lit once Kilimanjaro has turned pink in the last light. Meals come from the Gabriel family’s gardens and from local smallholders, all of it organic. They are served on the dining terrace, with the mountain in front of the table.
With no generator running, the nights carry the sound of elephants out on the plains.
Shu’mata’s canvas tents follow the classic East African pattern. Inside, they are furnished in the spirit of an earlier safari age and hung with colourful Maasai art, and the en-suite bathrooms keep their showers open to the sky. Each tent takes two adults and two children sharing, so a family stays together under one roof of canvas rather than across separate rooms. Out front, a private veranda looks across the grass plains to Kilimanjaro. After dark, on clear nights, the Milky Way arcs over the ridge, and the veranda steps are the place to watch it.
Kilimanjaro International is around two hours away by road, and the West Kilimanjaro airstrip about 45 minutes. For guests coming from Hatari Lodge, an hour and a half’s drive away, Shu’mata is the northern end of a longer journey the family runs, six nights travelling the corridor between Meru and Kilimanjaro on foot and in open vehicles. The grazing land around camp remains with the Maasai villages that govern the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area, and cattle and elephants use the same ground.
accommodation
Shu'mata Camp has seven canvas safari tents on the ridge, each with a private veranda facing out to Kilimanjaro. Inside, they are furnished in the spirit of an earlier safari age and hung with colourful Maasai art. Each has an en-suite bathroom with an open-air shower. A tent takes two adults and two children sharing, so a family can stay together.
activities
Morning and afternoon drives in open vehicles cover the Enduimet rangelands and Kilimanjaro's lower slopes. On foot, an armed ranger leads the Walk in the Footsteps of Elephants, and a Maasai guide takes the naturalist walk up the sundowner hill. The Kili for All day goes higher, walking the Shira Plateau in Kilimanjaro National Park at 3,500 metres.
conservation
The camp works with the Maasai villages of the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area to keep open the elephants' corridor between Amboseli and the mountains of Kilimanjaro and Meru. The land stays in community hands, shared by cattle and elephants. Food comes from organic smallholder gardens, and the camp runs on solar power with no generator.
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.
By road from Kilimanjaro International Airport, about two hours by way of Boma Ng'ombe, and we arrange the transfer so a driver is waiting when you land. From Arusha the drive takes a similar time, running north through Longido. Many guests come on from Hatari Lodge at Momella, the camp's sister property, an hour and a half away across the plains below Mount Meru.
The camp asks that nobody arrives after six in the evening, so a late flight means a first night at Hatari Lodge and the drive in the next morning. To save the road, we can arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, into the West Kilimanjaro airstrip, about forty-five minutes' drive from the tents.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates all of Tanzania below 1,800 metres as high risk for malaria and recommends antimalarial tablets there, and the American CDC sets its line at the same height. The plains of Enduimet below Kilimanjaro lie at around 1,200 metres, comfortably under it, so the cool, dry mornings do not change the official advice.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, and we do not make medical recommendations: which tablets to take, and what suits a child, is for you to settle with your own doctor or a travel clinic, best with your dates in hand. The everyday precautions are simple: cover arms and legs from late afternoon and keep repellent with you at the evening fire.
Walk with the Maasai. The naturalist walk climbs the hill behind camp with a Maasai guide who explains how his people have read this land for centuries, and finishes with a sundowner looking out to Kilimanjaro, Meru and Longido. The Walk in the Footsteps of Elephants can be added to a morning or afternoon drive, and an armed ranger goes out with every walk, so you never walk alone.
In the evening the Maasai hosts teach a sundown spear throw. For a full day away, the Kili for All outing drives up to the Shira Plateau on Kilimanjaro's western side to walk as far as you like, with lunch afterwards at Simba Farm. Activities are shared unless a private vehicle is booked, which we can include.
Yes, elephants are the reason it is there. The camp stands in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area, community land belonging to Maasai villages on the Tanzanian side of the Amboseli ecosystem, and the herds move freely through it between Amboseli, Kilimanjaro and Meru. The camp works with those villages to keep that corridor open, and elephants are seen on most days of the year, though never on a fixed schedule.
The drives head across the plains to the elephant country on Kilimanjaro's lower slopes, with eland, oryx, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe and gazelle along the way. It is not a Big Five destination, so Shu'mata sits best alongside Tarangire, the Serengeti or Ngorongoro, which we plan as one journey.
Yes. Each of the seven tents takes two adults with two children, so a family of four can stay together under one canvas, and the camp welcomes children of all ages. The walks are gently graded, from half an hour up to five hours, and the spear throw with the Maasai hosts tends to be the evening children remember.
The camp runs entirely on solar power with no generator, and sockets for charging are in the lounge rather than the tents, worth knowing with phones and cameras to keep charged. Tell us the children's ages when we plan, and we will set the length of the drives and walks to suit them.
June to October. The air is cool, clear and bright, Kilimanjaro is most often free of cloud, and with water scarce the elephant viewing is at its most reliable. April and May are the wettest months, when the herds keep more to higher ground and take longer to find, and November and December bring short afternoon showers that turn the plains green.
January to March has a strong case: warm, green and quiet, with young animals about and very few other vehicles. Whenever you come, the early mornings on the open steppe are cold in an open vehicle, so pack a warm fleece, a windproof, a hat and gloves for first light, then a sun hat, sun cream and comfortable walking shoes.
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