Three Conservancies

The reserve is where the wildebeest are. The conservancies are where the experience is. Land here is leased from Maasai families, bed numbers are fixed by contract, and sightings are capped at a handful of vehicles. So you drive off-road onto a leopard, at night, with nobody arriving behind you. You walk at dawn. You sleep on a star bed. Cottar's has run the same style of tent since the 1920s, and the silence in Olderkesi is total.

Best months

Year round, with two sweet spots. December to March gives green grass, newborn plains game, resident big cats and lower rates. June to October gives dry-season concentration without the reserve's vehicle load. Conservancies never see migration-season crowding, because bed density is capped by lease agreement rather than by demand.

-1.2667, 35.2333

Olare Motorogi Conservancy

Day by day.

• Day 1 Nairobi

  Arrival and Karen night

  Jomo Kenyatta arrival and transfer to Giraffe Manor or House of Waine in Karen. Breakfast with Rothschild's giraffe if you stay at the Manor. Route briefing with your private guide.

• Day 2 Mara North Conservancy

  Twelve camps, seventy thousand acres

  Safarilink Wilson to Mara North airstrip, 45 minutes. Transfer to Elephant Pepper Camp, one of twelve member camps sharing 70,000 acres. Afternoon off-road drive on the Leopard Gorge escarpment.

• Day 3 Mara North

  Lion research and Leopard Gorge

  Morning with Mara North's big cat monitoring team. Afternoon in the Leopard Gorge and Fig Tree Ridge system, the country made familiar by long-running documentary filming. Night drive after dinner.

• Day 4 Mara North

  Walk the Ngare Ntare river

  Guided walking safari along the Ngare Ntare with Maasai guides, learning tracks and plant use. Afternoon at a Maasai boma to see how the lease income actually lands. Bush dinner.

• Day 5 Olare Motorogi

  Highest lion density in the Mara

  Ninety-minute transfer to Mahali Mzuri in Olare Motorogi, 35,000 acres held at roughly one tent per 700 acres. Afternoon drive on the Ntiakitiak river for the resident prides.

• Day 6 Olare Motorogi

  Five vehicles maximum, enforced

  Full day photographing cheetah and leopard under a strict five-vehicle sighting cap. Off-road approach permitted. Sundowner on the Motorogi ridge, then a night drive for aardwolf and civet.

• Day 7 Olderkesi Conservancy

  Canvas in the 1920s manner

  Two-hour transfer south to Cottar's 1920s Camp on the Olderkesi Conservancy, on the Tanzanian border. Afternoon drive into country where you may not pass another vehicle.

• Day 8 Olderkesi

  Border country and starlight

  Morning walk to the Sand River and the Serengeti boundary. Afternoon at leisure or a spa treatment in camp. Evening star bed or private bush dinner under the Olderkesi hills.

• Day 9 Departure

  Fly Keekorok to Wilson

  Transfer to Keekorok or Ol Kiombo airstrip with a final game drive en route. Safarilink to Wilson Airport, 45 minutes, then cross-town transfer to Jomo Kenyatta.

What the price actually covers.

From USD 15,320 per person sharing. Permits, park fees and charter legs are inside that number, not added at the end. International flights and visas are not.

• Mara North, Olare Motorogi and Olderkesi conservancy fees

• Night drives, off-road driving and armed walking safaris throughout

• Safarilink flights Wilson to Mara North and Keekorok to Wilson

• Private guide and sole-use vehicle, maximum four guests

• Maasai community lease levies and a boma visit contribution