Revitalizing our Kenya and Tanzania

safari experience!

Leopard, meet Rhino - at Mara Bushtops

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words, but sometimes an image needs a little explanation. You’re looking at shots of the family tents at Mara Bushtops – Leopard and Rhino. The former is a long-established part of Bushtops Camps Kenyan camp, but has been given a complete interior overhaul and update: the latter is brand new.

If your clients are looking to bring relatives with them on safari, family tents provide a great way of sharing a larger space: each can accommodate up to six people (or simply provide a couple with acres of extra room).

They are identical, so there’s no pressure to choose one over the other. Each looks out over the wildlife corridor down which animals pass on their way from the surrounding hills to the salt lick. The family tents are also adjacent to the solar heated pool and facilities of the Amani Spa.

These suites feature a pair of private tents with their own bathrooms, linked by a chic interior lounge, replete with a mini bar and coffee machine. Since the design is by Andrin Schweizer, the genius behind so much of the Bushtops look and feel, the quality is exceptional, featuring a private hot tub on the generous deck, a stone dining table, a sunken lounge and private fireplace in front of the tent.

Since the tents face the sunrise, could there be a more special place to wake up?!

Anyone familiar with Mara Bushtops knows that our pride and joy is being the only camp within the Isaaten Conservancy. This gives us a private safari destination on our doorstep, with wildlife roaming free around the camp. This privileged access means our guests can view animals from their tents and trucks without having to compete with other vehicles and visitors.

Conservancy Conservation

We also have a responsibility to look after this precious private land, conserving the flora and fauna, enhancing our guests’ experience, and working with local herders to balance their needs against those of the local wildlife.

Examples of recent interventions include collaring a lioness to monitor her movements and keep her pride safe by preventing her getting too close to livestock. We also helped sedate and treat a giraffe which was injured outside the Conservancy before finding its way into our care: the blue mark shows where a vet cleaned its wound and administered antibiotics. Both the lion and giraffe are doing well.

By maintaining the Conservancy and its wildlife, we have been able to keep everything in equilibrium, attracting a huge range of animals, including leopards and lions, plus elephants and antelope of all kinds. We now have a dedicated Conservation room, where guests can learn more about our activities and Earth Ranger programme.

That’s Mara Bushtops: what about the Serengeti?

Refreshing news - from Serengeti Bushtops

What makes a safari super-special? For us at Bushtops, a comb through reviews for our three camps proves that there’s no quick or simple answer. However, alongside eagle-eyed spotters and highly-specified trucks, great service and astonishing food, the quality of our tents is a regular highlight.

Room with a view

Actually, calling these living spaces ‘tents’ always sounds a bit strange to us: they’re more like highly characterful 5-star hotel rooms under canvas. If anyone can invent a suitable word or very short phrase to describe them, we’d be so grateful!

But before racking your brains, take a look at these pictures. They show how our master of design Andrin Schweizer has completely remodelled the suite interiors at Serengeti Bushtops.

Andrin spent many days on site assessing the location and light, researching options and seeking inspiration. As always, he turned this into stunning results. The redesigned suites now feature elegant new furniture and matching soft furnishings, ceiling fans and soft-lighting lanterns, plus well-stocked mini bars. Meanwhile, hand-cut slate from a local quarry contributes dramatically to revamped, upgraded bathrooms.

Our guest accommodation has always blended into the surrounding Bush, but now does so with even greater beauty, authenticity and grandeur. These spaces are so much cooler and more stylish than mere ‘tents’. So come on then: what should we call them?!

Beetling about in a buggy

Another improvement at Serengeti Bushtops is the doubling of our buggy fleet, from two to four, allowing more people to spend more time zipping about between their suites and public areas.

For some, these forays are like mini safaris, viewing the flora and fauna beyond the camp, from within. Of course, nothing matches a proper expedition in our open-sided Toyota 4x4s, but pretty well everyone agrees: the buggies are fun!

the never-ending journey

We always talk about the annual migration undertaken by wildebeest and zebra herds, but that sounds like a one-way journey, once a year. The reality is that it’s more like a constant cycle, rotating the herds on a never-ending circuit through Tanzania and Kenya.

Right now, the migration has arrived in the Northern Serengeti and is heading into the Mara in vast numbers. The great news for our guests is that the massed ranks can be found between Mara Bushtops and Serengeti Bushtops, giving both camps easy access to the spectacular sights and sounds of so many animals on the hoof.

Unusually most crossings are happening at the Sand River, with fewer at the more regularly favoured Mara River. As always, the herds go their own way and bely expectations!

The river crossings are obvious highlights, though irregular (we’re used to daily events, but right now they’re heading into the water just once or twice a week). Our rangers and regular guests say they have never seen quite so many animals in the migration before, which is wonderful news.

During the coming weeks and months, we should be able to enjoy herds on the way up, then on the way back to the Southern Serengeti, so this is peak time for Serengeti Bushtops. The great thing, though, is there is never a dull moment here, whatever time of year!