This camping safari has been designed to offer the same high quality wildlife safari experience provided by the top-end safari camps, with 4x4 game viewing escorted by top class guides and in exclusive wildlife conservancies away from the tourist minibuses, but at a hugely reduced price by staying in small basic mobile camps, “real camping” instead of the luxury accommodation of the expensive up-market tented lodges. 

For those for whom the wildlife safari experience is more important than the accommodation, and who are prepared to sleep in small tents in sleeping bags on a mattress on the floor with an element of “roughing it”, this gives an opportunity for an exceptional and exclusive wildlife experience with high quality guiding but at a fraction of the price. 
Camping Safari Experience 
The Gamewatchers Mobile Camps are sited in private conservancies with a wealth of wildlife and where you can go on walks with Maasai guides and take night drives but they are also conveniently located for easy access to Amboseli National Park and the Maasai Mara Reserve. 

•All game drives are in four-wheel-drive customised safari vehicles taking a maximum of 6 passengers. Your driver-guide is a wildlife expert and certified by the Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association. 

•The Gamewatchers Mobile Safari camps are set up on our own exclusive camp sites in the Selenkay Conservancy in the Amboseli eco-system and in the Ol Kinyei Conservancy in the Mara. 

•At each safari camp site we have service staff who do all the work associated with camping, like washing up, heating water for showers, doing the cooking and serving the food. 

•An experienced safari cook is at the camp to prepare the daily meals. Food is of the same quality as in a luxury safari camp and is included in the price, (not bought through a 'kitty' like some other camping safaris). 

•The camp is hosted by the safari guide. 

•Tents are small canvas dome tents for 2 persons. Clients bring their own sleeping bag and a towel and sleep on mattresses on the tent floor. The camp has toilets and safari showers and a shaded sitting area for meals. 

•Mineral water is provided daily at camp and on game drives and walks. 

•Drinks other than mineral water are not included, but a stop is made at a shop en route to each camp to enable you to buy wine, beer or soft drinks as required. 

•Transfers from Nairobi to the camps is by minibus, with a short flight by light aircraft from Nairobi to Mara and back by minibus. Then while at camp all safari transport is in 4x4 customised safari vehicle. 


Selenkay Conservancy and Amboseli National Park 
The Selenkay Conservancy lies in the heart of Maasailand a few miles north of Amboseli National Park and is an important dispersal area and rangeland for wildlife in the Amboseli eco-system. The local Maasai community has set aside the area as a reserve for wildlife so that the habitat can be protected and wildlife conserved. The community is receiving an income from leasing the area for ecotourism and also receives an entry fee for each tourist visitor. All roads have been constructed using local labour so that the members of the community gain employment from the Conservancy. In addition to the road maintenance team, Game Scouts have been employed to carry out patrols to see that the wildlife is protected. 

Within the Selenkay Conservancy there is a greater diversity of species than in Amboseli itself and the following animals have been seen recently: elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah, Thompson's and Grant's gazelles, gerenuk, impala, eland, oryx, lesser kudu, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, warthog, spotted hyena, striped hyena, jackal, bat-eared fox, caracal, African wild cat, serval cat, genet cat, honey badger, aardvark, porcupine, zorilla, mongoose, bushbaby and dik-dik. Birdlife is prolific, especially birds of prey. Amboseli National Park, at the foot of Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, is one of Kenya's most popular national parks. Established as a national park in 1974. it lies 150 miles south-east of Nairobi very close to the Tanzania border. The snow capped peak of Mount Kilimanjaro rising above the clouds dominates every aspect of Amboseli. Covering 150sq miles, Amboseli supports a wide range of mammals (well over 50 of the larger species) and birds (over 400 species). Years ago this was the locale around which such famous writers as Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark spun their stories of big game hunting in the wilds of Africa. The park encompasses dry lake beds, savannah woodland and extensive swamps constantly fed by springs emanating from the mountain. The water and seasonal lakes attract a wide variety of bird and animal life, in particular herds of elephant. Amboseli is one of the best parks in Africa to observe family groups of elephants and large bull elephants at close quarters. 

Ol Kinyei and Masai Mara 
The exclusive wildlife conservancy of Ol Kinyei is one of the most beautiful wilderness areas in the Serengeti-Mara eco-system. This is pristine wilderness with open savannah plains, riverine forest, springs, streams and rivers, rolling hills and spectacular views across the Mara. Ol Kinyei belongs to a Maasai community who have recently set aside the conservancy as a sanctuary for wildlife. The 10,000 acre conservancy holds a wide variety of the animal species for which the Mara is famous including a large resident pride of lions as well as several leopards. Cheetahs are frequently seen and buffalo and elephant are often to be seen in large numbers. The wildebeest migration from the Loita plains passes through Ol Kinyei and into the Mara Reserve.

 

Considered by many to be Kenya's finest wildlife area, the 650sq miles of the Maasai Mara adjoin Tanzania's well known Serengeti, forming one eco-system. The open rolling savannah grassland of the Mara is the home of numerous animals including elephant, rhino, lion, cheetah, leopard, hyena, jackal, buffalo, eland, topi, impala, gazelle, warthog and zebra. 

From June to September, the annual wildebeest migration takes place when thousands of these animals sweep across the plains and seek out new grazing areas.