Giraffe Manor
- Nairobi, KenyaUncover the history of the rare Rothschild Giraffe at Giraffe Manor with its resident herd roaming freely but securely through the 140 acres at the historic manor.
touch the soul of africa
Mara Expedition Camp is a magical revisiting of the past, drawing from Africa’s original explorers’ designs and designed for those who search for East Africa’s romantic safari era. Here, you will experience the best of both worlds: the intense action of the Maasai Mara ecosystem, as well as the more private 28,000 hectare Mara North Conservancy. Mara Expedition Camp is a stylish experience and adventure camp unique to the industry and fits the service levels, specialised guiding and design that has become associated with Great Plains Conservation.
It is safari chic with five light and airy, spacious canvas tents, each with en-suite bathrooms. It is set down low, hidden from lights and noise from other camps or properties or any sign of mankind. Under the grove of Africa acacia trees, its humble main area is lit by lantern and candlelit, simple in design, but just enough for all the comforts. This camp’s ambience and ‘back to the classics’ safari design will be a sure hit with private groups and safari enthusiasts.
The camp is locally famous for its leopard residents wandering nearby and is positioned to take the best advantage of two migrations – the famous annual Serengeti migration and the green season migration from Loita Plains, an additional 50,000 wildebeest and over 100,000 zebras vying for grazing rights. Mara Expedition Camp is a place for the ardent safari-goer. Full days, with picnic breakfast (and often lunch, too), traverse some of Africa’s richest game country, renowned for extraordinary predator density and frequent hunts. Access to both the Masai Mara Reserve and Mara North Conservancy give guests options of more privacy.
Mara Expedition Camp’s two specially designed Land Cruisers are totally open-sided (a rarity in the Mara) offer 300-degree views which provide ideal opportunities for photography. Under the guidance of our top guides, each vehicle comes fully-equipped with a stocked fridge and photography tools.
Mara Expedition Camp has two professional camera sets, each with a camera body and lenses. These are available on a complimentary basis to guests on a first come-first serve basis. Photos will be downloaded to a USB drive on guest’s departure. A limited number of high-quality binoculars are also available for guest’s complimentary use during their stay.
Hot-air ballooning over the Masai Mara is available at additional cost, and is a truly stunning way to experience the landscape and an unforgettable sunrise.
Great Plains is first and foremost a conservation organization that uses eco tourism as a tool to sustain conservation programs. We even coined a new name for what we do – “Conservation Tourism”. We define it as the use of quality led tourism experiences that are environmentally sound, with the benefits going specifically into making the conservation of an area viable and sustainable.
It is important to us that this is done without any negative influence on the land, on any species that uses that land, or, indeed, on any individual animal. We do not do conservation by triage, killing some to save the rest, because this is a defeatist and disrespectful way of interacting with nature.
Our model takes stressed and threatened environments, surrounds them with compassionate protection and intelligent, sustainable management, and funds them with sensitive, low-volume, low-impact, tourism. Communities are an intrinsic part of this model and benefit directly from it. The final piece of the puzzle is you – our clients and guests – who pay to visit the camps we create, and through doing so, become our valued partners and agents of positive change.
Our philosophy is grounded in the fundamental appreciation of the good in life… Good people, good staff, good decisions, good things we share and enjoy, but most of all we try to extend that “goodness” to our interactions with you, with wildlife, with nature and with the local communities which so depend on them
