Offbeat Meru Camp

Offbeat Safaris pride themselves on providing guests with an exclusive experience in remote wildlife areas. Offbeat Meru Camp epitomizes this important goal. The camp is small, traditional, and located on the edge of Meru National Park in the Bisanadi National Reserve in a stunning location overlooking the Bisanadi River with beautiful riverine forest.

Almost brought to its knees by heavy poaching in the 80s and 90s, Meru National Park is now thriving and is once again home to the Big 5. After the re-introduction of black and white rhino, the park now boasts over 67 rhino in its large sanctuary, as well as a great number of other species including reticulated giraffe, oryx, gerenuk and lesser kudu, while huge buffalo herds and elephant are seen regularly. The park also boasts 13 rivers which flow through the area, encouraging a spectacular variety of birdlife.

Immortalized by Joy Adamson in her book "Born Free" and with only two other lodges in the park, the likelihood of seeing anyone else while you stay here is small; you feel you have the park to yourself. The park also has a healthy lion population, no doubt some descendants of Elsa, as well as cheetah and leopard.

The camp consists of only six tents, each furnished with a large iron bed, a private en-suite bathroom, traditional hot bucket shower and flushing loo. In addition, there is also 24-hour solar lighting in the tents, while the rest of the camp is lit by traditional "tilly" lamps. Informal dining is hosted in the mess tent or around the camp fire; the cooks here are quite brilliant. Adjacent to this is a spacious living room tent with comfortable sofas, a writing table and bar.

Days are tailored to suit guests' requirements. Activities include day and evening game drives, bush breakfasts and sundowners, evening walks with armed guards, fishing in the local rivers, and visits to the local Boran community. This area of Kenya gets quite hot during the dry season, and after an active morning in the bush there's no better feeling than coming back to camp and cooling off in the stunning infinity swimming pool watching the wildlife as it comes to drink from the Bisanadi River below.