Rekero Tented Camp

When you remove the frills from a safari camp it has to rely on real substance. Rekero has a pleasingly simple design that belies its style and depth of character. That Rekero boasts the best guides in the Maasai Mara and has one of the prime locations in the Reserve helps too. In August or September, when the wildebeest invade from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, you could well find the migration crossing the Talek River in front of Rekero.

Throughout the year the surrounding plains, as well as being immensely photogenic, are in one of the most game- rich areas of the Mara. What underpins Rekero, however, and goes a long way to explaining why so many people come back time and time again (and why you need to book at least a year in advance) is the people who run it, Gerard and Rainee Beaton and Jackson (also known as Saigilu ole Looseyia) and how much of themselves they put into Rekero.

Rekero sits on a picturesque bend in the Talek River, a seasonal river that rises in the Loita Hills to the East and cuts a deep rocky path through the wide Ol Misigiyoi and Meta Plains to meet the Mara River in the south of the reserve. The camp is tucked amongst tall deciduous trees and is designed in such a way that it compliments rather than competes with its awesome surroundings. At Rekero, the focus is outside not within the tents. Even when the migration isn't passing through camp, there's plenty to see from your tent or from the main mess at Rekero.

The Posee plains opposite have a constant flow of animals wandering past; Thompsons gazelles, giraffe and in the early mornings hippo waddling their way along the river bank. Birdlife in the canopy of the woodland and the riverine bush is diverse and colourful as well as noisy. In the morning the trees are alive with yellow vented bulbuls, green pigeons, Klaas's cuckoos and, outside our tent, a fork tailed drongo nesting tightly wedged into a crevice in a tree trunk.