Background

The beautiful Laikipia plateau straddling the equator is a mosaic of private and community-owned reserves, conservancies and game ranches, commercial and small-scale farms, and rangelands traversed by the herds of Laikipia Masai and Samburu pastoralists. This is a game-viewing mecca all through the year. Its 9 500km2 of dramatic landscapes – endless plains, spectacular gorges and indigenous forests – host the biggest game densities in Kenya outside the Masai Mara, including the Big Five, the vulnerable reticulated giraffe and endangered African wild dog and Grevy’s zebra.

Wilderness Highlights

The Laikipia plains are covered by open grasslands, basalt hills, lonely kopjes and dense cedar forests fed by the Ewaso Nyiro and Ewaso Narok rivers. This spectacular region is often considered the gateway to Kenya's wild Northern Frontier country. Laikipia lies at the foot of Mount Kenya – Africa’s second-highest mountain rises abruptly and splendidly from the high savannah of Kenya’s interior and is a sacred place for indigenous communities. It is one of Kenya’s most important water towers, and two of the country’s major rivers, the Tana and the Ewaso Ng’iro, originate here. The Mount Kenya National Park and the encircling forest reserve together form a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The indigenous forests clothing Mount Kenya’s foothills are an important habitat for elephant and other wildlife.