Rating: Deluxe
Kicheche Valley is an intimate luxury tented camp offering a high quality wildlife experience in a community-minded conservation area of the Mara. Stunning and memorable.
Kicheche Valley Camp is a small luxury camp set amongst trees in the 20,000 hectare Naboisho Conservancy. It is the most luxurious of the four Kicheche camps. Guests can enjoy game drives, guided walks and village visits. The conservancy is home to a vast number of wildlife including large numbers of giraffe, elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah and a variety of antelope. There are also hippo and crocodiles and this is a great bird watching destination.
The 6 tents provide comfortable accommodation with cedar beds, bedside tables, luggage racks and soft rugs. All have an en-suite bathroom with shower and flush toilet. The lounge tent overlooks the spring which attracts a variety of wildlife. Guests can relax here between game drives, enjoying a refreshing drink and perusing the reference books. Most meals are served outdoors and are based on European and Western fare with occasional African dishes. There is a souvenir shop selling handicrafts made by families of camp staff.
There are twice daily game drives in the early morning and late afternoon, the latter including sundonwers in the bush. At other times guests can relax at the camp, enjoy the fine food, take an escorted nature walk or visit a local Masai village.
Open: Kicheche Valley Camp is open from 1st June till 31st March.
Location: Kicheche Valley Camp is in the Naboisho Conservancy in the Masai Mara eco-system. The nearest airstrip is Ol Seki, just a 10 minutes drive from the camp.
Rooms: There are 6 spacious, fully insect-proofed tents. They are equipped with wooden frame beds, bedside tables, luggage racks and rugs. A tent can be converted to quadruple on request. The en-suite bathrooms have showers, twin hand basins and flush toilets. There are large verandas. Mineral water is provided in guest tents each day.
Activities: The camp offers game drives, nature walks with a Kicheche guide and an armed ranger and visits to local Maasai villages. It is possible to visit projects supported by Kicheche's Community Trust.
Facilities: The lounge tent overlooks a spring where animals gather. There are reference books for guests to browse through at their leisure. Meals are generally served in the open air, but can be served in the lounge tent if weather dictates. The cuisine is mainly European with some African dishes. Evening drinks are served by the camp fire. Massages can be arranged on request. The camp has facilities for charging camera and video batteries. There is a daily laundry service.
Dining:Meals are taken communally. Private dinners can be arranged by your tent.
Children: Children of all ages are welcome, although there are no specific facilities for children and it should be noted that the camp is completely unfenced so children need to be supervised at all times.
Health: This is a malarial area.
Communication: The mobile signal is unreliable and WiFi is available in the lounge.
A fantastic family safari adventure in Laikipia and the Masai Mara.
The four Kicheche camps minimise their impact on the environment by such means as removing all non-biodegradable waste to Nairobi, using recycled charcoal dust pellets for water heating, and using solar power for all lighting and refrigeration. In addition they minimize wastage from plastic drinking bottles each room has a dispenser filled with mineral water.
The camps fund the Kicheche Community Trust which helps projects in and around the conservancy communities where they operate. Their mission is to encourage the preservation of the environment whilst improving the welfare of the community through improved health and education facilities. They strive to empower the community through revenue earning projects too.
The Trust builds on four corner posts of Community Welfare: Education, Health and Family Care, Community Empowerment and Environmental Conservation.
They also support the Koiyaki Guiding School which trains local Masai to become guides. The Kicheche Community Project has fast become a reliable source of funding for projects in and around the Aitong area, such as the Olkimitare Nursery School, Aitong Academy Primary School, and the CMF Aitong Health Clinic.
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0"This is the top end camp in the Kicheche stable of camps in the Mara. It’s gorgeous. The tents are huge and beautifully furnished, and it has a lovely open position looking out onto a shallow valley where wildlife frequently roams. I was invited for lunch, but sadly did not have time to accept. Shame, it smelled wonderful! The new manager, Andy, had only been here a couple of weeks when I visited, but already he is besotted with the place. Enthusiasm oozed, especially when talking about the walking safaris that can be taken from here. If you want a high quality camp with a good eco ethos, and a determination to get you immersed into the wildlife, put this on your list. "