Sarara Camp gives guests a chance to explore their own private wilderness, relax in one of Kenya’s finest tented camps and enjoy the ultimate “pool with view”, but to also experience first hand the lives and cultures of a truly traditional community, and to learn firsthand about the challenges to conservation of African wildlife…

At the small luxury Sarara Camp in Namunyak Conservancy in the Southern Matthew’s Ranges, elephants visit the waterhole almost daily to drink, where they can easily be seen from guests tents, the wide open verandahs of the main camp building and even from the waters of the rock swimming pool. In mid June 2006 an elephant appeared at the waterhole with a badly injured hind leg.

Sarara is part of the Northern Ranchlands Trust (NRT) a major community conservation initiative that provides developmental assistance to small community based tourism ventures and wildlife conservation projects throughout the region, and this allowed the camp managers to quickly radio for assistance from the NRT Headquarters at nearby Lewa Downs.

The following day a team flew in to evaluate the injured animal. Its leg was badly swollen from a large infected wound in the foot, making it difficult for the elephant to walk. Trackers could easily locate the animal by following the drag marks of the injured leg through the bush, leaving a trail of fresh blood and pus.

As guests from the camp watched from a safe distance, the elephant was darted with a tranquilizer, and within 10 minutes had collapsed in a deep sleep as the team moved in to deal with the injured limb.

While the elephants eyes were protected from the sun and its trunk held open to ensure it kept breathing safely, Lewa Downs owner Ian Craig and his team cleaned out the wound and found the cause, a sharp stick that had been driven deep into the foot by the animals body weight.

After administering a massive dose of antibiotics, the elephant was revived, and within a few minutes was back on its newly treated feet.

For Sarara’s guests this was an excellent opportunity to see real eco-tourism in action, as the camp they stayed in protected the wildlife they had come to see.

For Ian Craig and the Namunyak rangers however, there was another reason to be impressed. “Ten years ago, the cause of this kind of injury would have most likely been a bullet wound or a poachers snare… now there is very little chance of that happening”.

Indeed, the genesis of NRT was an incident that occurred in Namunyak in the early 1990’s when Craig was hiking in the hills through this area. Camped in the valley near Sarara, he witnessed a group of poachers with automatic weapons wipe out an entire herd of elephants. He was so shocked by the brutality of what he saw that he returned home determined to extend the conservation efforts he had started at Lewa into other neighbouring ranchlands.

Ten years later, the efforts of Lewa and NRT can be seen in the rising wildlife populations in the Namunyak area. In 1984, a safari guide had declared the Matthews Ranges almost completely devoid of large plains game, with all elephant and rhino populations wiped out by poaching gangs.

Now, there are a recorded population of 3000 Elephant in the area, with large herds of giraffe, impala and lesser kudu, and occasional sightings of lion and cheetah. There are also healthy populations of rare endemic species such as the gerenuk, Somali ostrich and striped hyena. At Sarara camp, there have been over 60 recorded leopard sightings by guests between December 2005 and March 2006.

The absence of a poaching threat can be seen not just in the existence of the game but in their behaviour. Elephants and other threatened species now stay in the vicinity of the camp and no longer exhibit signs of fear at the sight of man.

According to a Namunyak game scout, Lolkoloi Kitonga “The animals used to be very shy. But now the animals realize the area is safe, so they come here to stay. Animal numbers have increased so much. The same applies for the people. People now know that this area is safe to live in which is great”.

This is great news for tourists- and even better news for the Namunyak Samburu community, who own and administer the conservancy, raising money through the Sarara Camp project to fund development.

The camp takes its name from a series of “singing wells”, dug deep into a dry river bed, where chains of herders pass water from bucket to bucket to the surface, calling their herds to drink with traditional songs passed on from generation to generation.

These wells had been used by the Samburu people for generations, until the wave of poaching in the 1970’s and 80’s made the area insecure and almost uninhabitable.

According to Sarara’s head guide Mark Lemusari, “Our community has fought several times with bandits. I remember in 1992, more than 200 bandits came to my village. They killed 3 people and took numerous goats and all of our cattle”.

All of this changed with the coming of the protected conservancy “In 1994, 6 scouts were employed with radios who were linked with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Once the scouts reported the matter to KWS, action was immediate. KWS have been very active: once you call them they come to help you. At this time, we began to see a good life for both the animals and for us- The last time we had a bandit attack was more than 10 years ago”.

Mark is an experienced guide who has worked with several safari outfits, and says that “guiding is in my blood”. But he enjoys Sarara more than any other guiding job as it allows him to introduce guests to his culture and traditions in a natural and authentic way.

Protection of cultural assets is very important to the Namunyak community, and guests are not allowed to photograph local people or in any way commercialize the local culture. Visits to manyattas (villages) and the famous singing wells are relaxed, open and a great insight into daily Samburu lives.

The camp is owned by the community, administered in a transparent manner by elected trustees. The camp is a small (12 bed) top end property marketed for low impact-high value tourism, receiving assistance from the Tusk Trust, private donors and TTF.

It has been a tremendous success, and is regarded as the highest earning community tourist project in East Africa, with an average of 2700 high value bed nights each year.

The trustees employ external managers to run the camp as a professional outfit, and invest 60% of their proceeds into the community, and reinvest 40% into the camp’s maintenance and development.

At his manyatta in a remote Namunyak valley, tribal elder John Kipoip Longonyek can relate many stories about the ways in which the NRT communication and security network have saved lives “In 1997, over 200 people suffered from a cholera outbreak. We contacted NRT through Namunyak, who then sent the Flying Doctors out. The community received cholera injections. Consequently, only nine people died”

He sees Sarara and NRT as a means to sustaining the life of his community, by funding education, health and water issues.

Head Guide Mark agrees “I enjoy working at Sarara, not only because I’m earning money for my family but also because I’m helping the community as a whole. I enjoy working towards improving life standards for everyone. I want to continuing working towards improving everyone’s living standards”.

pool4The return of the injured elephant, its leg rapidly recovering, to drink at the waterhole by the camp swimming pool was a sign of hope for the future of this area- as wildlife, tourism and the community coexist in mutually beneficial harmony.

It’s no surprise that in Samburu “Namunyak” means Place of Peace.