A day at Enkewa Camp, from the dawn drive to the campfire

Enkewa Camp is an owner-run tented camp in the southern Masai Mara, near the Sand River and the Serengeti border. José Serrano came from Mallorca with the idea of a camp in one of the wildest corners of Kenya, and more than twenty years on he still runs it.

Out before sunrise

Tea and coffee are served in the dining tent from 5:15. The morning drive leaves at six, just before sunrise, with blankets, hot-water bottles and coffee on board.

Every open 4x4 goes out with a professional guide and a Maasai spotter. One drives and reads the animals; the other watches the grass.

A dark safari vehicle with its canvas roof raised on the grassy plains, two guests standing up through the roof with binoculars and others seated inside

Breakfast where the drive stops

Breakfast is laid out in the bush at about half past nine, wherever the morning has led. Guests are usually back in camp around eleven, unless the sightings keep them out.

The kitchen is Mediterranean. Menus are written each day and changed for whoever is in camp, using organic ingredients, many from the camp’s own vegetable garden. Lunch is served from 12:30.

A cook in a white jacket picking ripe tomatoes from staked plants in the camp garden

Between the drives

The tents are spread through the trees of a 36-hectare property on the slopes of Mount Kalema. Each double tent stands on a raised wooden deck: 60 square metres, with a king bed or two singles, a lounge and a veranda onto the bush. The family tent joins two tents around a shared lounge and sleeps four. The camp runs on solar power around the clock, so there is no generator to hear at night.

The bedroom of a double tent, a king bed in white linen under the canvas roof and the canvas doors tied back to the veranda and the bush

“The tents were very roomy, comfortable, and clean. The food was outstanding.” — Scott Larson, Tripadvisor

There are outings too: an afternoon in a Maasai village that is home to one of the team, the waterfalls near camp for fishing or a swim, and a Maasai livestock and produce market after a morning drive.

Two Maasai guides in red shukas leading three guests over the boulders of a rocky river, a safari vehicle parked on the wooded bank above

Sundowners, then the fire

The afternoon drive leaves at four and stops for a sundowner on the way home. From seven there are drinks by the campfire – wine, a local beer or a soft drink – with the other guests and the team. Dinner is at eight, outside when the weather allows, and cocktails and digestifs follow from nine.

Enkewa’s dining tent in late-afternoon sun, tables laid with white cloths under the canvas and the lawn and trees beyond

Plan a stay: https://enkewa-camp.netlify.app