How Mara Siligi Camp grew from bare land below Oldonyo Loip

Mara Siligi Camp sits at the foot of Oldonyo Loip Hill near Talek, ten minutes from the Masai Mara’s Mpuaai Gate and fifteen from Talek Gate. A wildlife photographer and a safari guide started it.

Bare land, and a name

Usha Harish is a chartered accountant who moved to Kenya in 2008 and became a wildlife photographer. Jacob is a safari guide. Together they built the camp from scratch on bare land, working with the local Maasai community.

Indigenous trees have been planted across the land since, and they now stand between the tents. The name Siligi means hope.

Canvas tents scattered through low scrub below the slope of Oldonyo Loip Hill, flat plains running out to a hazy horizon

Run on the sun

The whole camp runs on solar power, day and night, from the tent lamps to the sockets used for charging camera batteries. Hair dryers and electric shavers can’t run on it. Drinking water comes in refillable bottles. Water is scarce here — each flush uses twelve litres — so guests are asked to go easy.

Each canvas tent has an en-suite with a hot shower and a flush toilet, and a deck in front. There are no fans or air conditioning; the tents are built for the breeze. Wi-Fi is in the lounge only.

A canvas tent on a raised stone base under a wide fly-sheet, two red deck chairs on its tiled deck and a white bed canopy inside, clouds across a blue sky

Drives timed for the light

Game drives go out through Mpuaai or Talek Gate in the camp’s Land Cruisers, with Maasai driver-guides. The vehicles carry bean bags, roof hatches and power inverters, and back at camp the photo lounge has a projector and screen for the day’s pictures.

Usha leads the camp’s six-day photo safari: five nights at camp, morning and afternoon drives, daily Lightroom sessions and a night-sky session, with no more than four photographers to a vehicle. It runs year-round. July to October is the migration window.

The camp’s green Land Cruiser parked on the grass with its sides open, two photographers resting long lenses on bean bags over the window frames, a Maasai guide at the back

Neighbours round the hill

The guides, chefs, hosts and night guards are Maasai from the villages near Oldonyo Loip. The camp is fenced, and after dark a guard walks guests between their tent and the lounge.

The camp team in red and checked shukas, a chef in whites among them, standing under the camp’s gate with a buffalo skull above the sign

A nature walk heads out towards the hill with a Maasai guide and ends at the camp’s tree nursery, where guests can plant an indigenous sapling. Evenings start at the bonfire, with a drink and something to eat after the afternoon drive.

In long grass, a Maasai guide tips water from a can over a guest’s hands while a team member presses soil round a new sapling and another stands by

Plan a stay: https://mara-siligi-camp.netlify.app