OUR STORY
HOW WE STARTED
The Amazing Mara Camp is the flag-ship camp of Amazing Kenya Camps. The idea came about in October 2020. With covid crippling the tourism industry of Kenya, co-founders Geoff and Suzanne found themselves in a tricky situation. The camp they were running was making cut-backs and staff were being laid off.
The couple arranged to borrow a friends mobile tented camp, rented a site in Tsavo East, on the banks of the Galana River, and, with a small group of just 5 staff, ran the camp from early December 2020 through until the middle of January. Buoyed by this success, and with a former client offering some financial security, the team moved the equipment downstream and ran the camp through until Easter 2021 in the Galana Wildlife Conservancy.
Shortly after Easter, Kenya went back into lockdown and, using this time to properly digest the last few months, Geoff and manager Clinton began looking at new opportunities.
With the great wildebeest migration fast approaching, it was decided that the World-Famous Maasai Mara should be the next target. In late April the pair visited the Maasai Mara, still under lockdown, and visited a number of potential sites. Geoff and Clinton immediately fell in love with one particular location on the banks of the Talek River, and even after a (very) close encounter with a grumpy buffalo, they chose the site that is now our Amazing Mara Camp!
What began as an initial temporary 3 month exercise quickly turned into a semi-permanent camp, and the “famous five” pioneer staff have expanded into a camp of nearly 20 employees!
Our former client who offered so much support from the early stages has now joined the team as our primary investor and the whole project has grown from strength to strength… even surviving the “Great Flood of 2024…”.
OUR BEGINING
OUR MISSION
This project is born out of passion and that passion directly translates to amazing guest experiences. Every staff member has a passion for tourism and conservation and understands that they are an ambassador for Kenya. And everyone is proud of this. This is reflected in our guests experiences – and every guest who goes away with a positive experience will want to tell all of their friends. Direct referrals are the most powerful endorsement of our camp.
Amazing really does come as standard with us.
OUR VISION
Using our Amazing Mara Camp as a flagship, we have a desire for Amazing Kenya Camps to expand into areas where ethical tourism facilities are in demand, and where our guests and staff can feel like they have a positive impact on the environment and local conservation.
A percentage of our overall revenue goes directly back to the local community in the form of land rental and bednight fees. We also support specific conservation projects, targeting those that are working towards human/ wildlife conflict resolutions. As our company grows, so does our contribution towards conservation.
GREEN ETHOS
Following on from our ethos since inception, we are “doing our bit” to reduce our footprint in this fragile ecosystem.
Our camp is built from sustainably sourced materials, and by using shipping containers for the majority of our “back of house” requirements we have reduced our need for building materials quite significantly. The camp runs on solar power throughout, and our own borehole supplies water not only for the camp, but also for our dam during the drier months – ensuring that the wildlife always has a permanent water source nearby.
For every guest that stays in our Amazing Laikipia Camp we will plant a tree, continuing a tradition that we began at our Amazing Mara Camp where, over a 5 year period we planted nearly 5000 indigenous trees!
We recycle all of our old wine bottles into water glasses and all of our refuse – both human and organic – is run through biodigesters ensuring that only reusable “grey” water is reintroduced to the environment.
