Lewa Wilderness

Wilderness Trails has a real old Kenya charm to it. This is an old ranch house, and, as with many of the Kenyan bush homes, much of its appeal is in the people who own and run this place. With this in mind, it's probably fair to say that it's also a little rough around the edges and in need of a spot of TLC. If you're prepared for more "shabby-chic" than "safari style" here then you wont be disappointed.

Most people come to Wilderness Trails to see Lewa's Rhinos, but it's also somewhere you'll find some quite interesting micro-industry - a furniture factory that uses dead wood collected from the ranch to make reproduction furniture, an organic vegetable plot that produces all the food for the house, and even talk of growing a bio-diesel crop in a self sufficiency drive. Going for a "vegetable drive" to see backstage instead of a game drive is a fun, if slightly unexpected backdrop to the main event at Lewa.

Lewa is unlike much of Laikipia, which is known for the wildness of its harsh rocky country. This is an area of soft rolling volcanic hills and wide lush plains set in the shadow of Mt Kenya whose rocky peaks are clearly visible on a fine day. The Lewa River runs through the game rich plains, its banks lined with stands of large mature Yellow fever acacia trees. Apart from the terrain, the other significant contrast you notice as soon as you arrive at Lewa, is that unlike most of Laikipia, electric fences are much in evidence here and from much of the Conservancy, it is possible to see the growing number of small-holdings and tin roofs mushrooming on the Mt Kenya foothills.

Lewa is an area of 65,000 acres, entirely surrounded by electric fencing, with a single gap of nine metres in the north to allow a steady diffusion of game in and out of the area. There are plans for the fences between Lewa and Borana to come down in the next year or so.