Basecamp Wilderness

a comfortable camp with
engaging guides

Basecamp Wilderness is set in a quiet corner of the Mara Naboisho Conservancy in south-west Kenya.

This is a small, unfussy tented camp that places emphasis on quality guiding and rather than luxury. It blends neatly into a stand of acacia trees overlooking open plains. The camp feels relaxed and informal yet has thoughtful touches such as locally crafted furnishings and open fire-pit dinners under the stars.

The central lounge and dining tent sits beneath canvas on a raised wooden deck with views into the plains. While it is pleasant and functional, the main area is relatively compact compared to other camps and most of the social space is outdoors around the fire.

Rooms

Guest accommodation is in six simple but comfortable tents set under the acacias and spaced for privacy. Each tent has twin or double beds, an en suite bathroom with a flush toilet and safari bucket shower, and a shaded veranda facing the plains.

Tents: x6

Activities

Basecamp Wilderness provides the following guided activities, not all of which are necessarily included in the room rate …

 • Vehicle safari

 • Walking safari

 • Cultural interaction

Naboisho Conservancy offers excellent wildlife densities with fewer vehicles than the adjacent Maasai Mara National Reserve, and walking is permitted under conservancy rules. We found the camp to have a knowledgeable and engaging guiding team.

The Maasai Mara tends to feature in almost all safari trips to Kenya. As well as being the best known reserve, it is also the most productive for wildlife.

The usual stay duration is 4-8 nights split between two camps, less frequently 3-4 nights in just one camp.

Seasonality

The best time of year to visit is generally considered to be the Jul-Oct dry season, when the weather should be reliably good and the wildlife concentrated around the permanent water sources.

The Nov-Jun green season may be much less dependable for weather, but remains really strong for wildlife viewing.

Visitor traffic is less of an issue in this private area, but you can expect the camps to be fully booked during the Jul-Oct and Dec-Jan high seasons. So there can be slight advantages to visiting during quieter periods.

Getting around

You’re most likely to arrive into the Maasai Mara area via the regular light aircraft services that operate from Nairobi, which means that you will travel around the area with a guide and vehicle from the camp in which you are staying.

If you’re staying in more than one camp in the greater Maasai Mara then inter-camp transfers are usually operated by the departing camp and generally pass through wildlife areas for most if not all of their routes.

It’s also possible to travel down from Nairobi to the Maasai Mara by road, which is quite a long and tiresome journey, but not without interest. The trouble is that the better lodges in the Mara will offer you no discount for having your own guide and vehicle along, so you end up paying for both, which works out more expensive than flying down.

one of the three best private concessions in the Mara