Kicheche Mara Camp
Accommodation - simple but excellent safari camp with 11 tents
Price Guide - $300 - 365 pppn
Kicheche Mara Camp is one of the best value safari camps in the Mara Conservation Area. This is a well put together, traditional safari camp, and it's somewhere you'll get excellent game viewing and comfortable accommodation, without having to re-mortgage your house. Kicheche may not be as intimate as some of the smaller camps at eleven double tents, but it still manages to provide an excellent service and all in all is one of our favourites. Read more?
Staff, including the manager, Charles Lemiso, are sharp and friendly - and the bed-tents, large lounge tent and dining tent are well equipped. Public areas do seem a trifle small for a full camp though. The styling is tasteful - and there has been a fairly deft and sympathetic hand behind the place, adding some nice touches.
Like Richards Camp which is not far off, Kicheche is on the edge of the Aitong Plains. This is wide open and very beautiful country, but a camp in this area has to sit in the woodland for shelter, and shade - which means no views or wide open spaces. Views or not, Kicheche is well laid out, relatively informal, and with plenty of space, ergo privacy, for each tent.
Location - Maasai Mara Conservation Area
The Mara Conservation Area surrounds the main Maasai Mara National Reserve. This land is owned by a series of different Masai communities and differs from the main reserve in a couple of important ways.
First, the masai to whom this is home are allowed to use this area to graze their cattle. Second, because it lies outside the main reserve, walking is allowed in this area.
While many of the camps located here - the likes of Kicheche Mara Camp, Ol Seki Mara Camp, Richards Camp and Elephant Pepper Camp are within relatively easy reach of the main reserve, we would council against using this area simply as a dormitory for visiting the main park.
Like Loliondo in northern Tanzania the Conservation Area really offers another side of the Mara ecosystem. It's probably worth recognising that the game viewing may not be quite on the scale of the main park - and that for the major river crossings you'll need to visit to make the journey. However, in our experience, game viewing here rarely disappoints and the added dimension of the Masai involvement makes this an excellent place to spend a few days. Jump to page?
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