Sarara Camp

Sarara Camp is a six-tent, community-run camp on the lower slopes of the Mathews Range, in the 850,000 acre Namunyak Conservancy, land owned outright by around 12,000 Samburu people, and protected since 1995 when the community followed the lead of neighbouring Il Ngwesi to become one of northern Kenya's first conservation trusts. Each tent has a solar-heated outdoor shower and private veranda, and a natural rock swimming pool sits above a waterhole where elephants, among the largest herds left in Kenya, come to drink in full view of the pool loungers.

Game drives, walking and horseback safaris head out with Samburu guides, and you can fly-camp for a night under the stars in a dry riverbed. The camp's signature experience is a visit to the Singing Wells, where warriors descend up to 10 metres into hand-dug wells during the dry season and pass water up to their cattle by hand, chanting as they go. A visit to the nearby Reteti Elephant Sanctuary, Africa's first community-owned elephant orphanage, is equally essential.