Ubuntu Migration Camp

Ubuntu features eight spacious under-canvas landscape-oriented safari tents, designed to balance traditional safari authenticity with 5-star luxury. Each room features king-sized beds (twin beds and triples are available) and en-suite bathrooms with hot-water safari bucket showers and flushing toilets. Interior is eloquently furnished in the classic East-African safari style, featuring Cyprus hues of khaki canvas and a host of complimentary amenities. This unit can accommodate a maximum of two guests.

Amenities Include:

• En-suite bathroom
• Bucket shower
• King sized or twin beds
• Veranda
• Mosquito nets
• Electrical outlets
• Pure cotton linen
• Complimentary laundry service

Ubuntu’s family tent is comprised of two bedrooms, one featuring a king-sized bed and an additional two single beds. Both bedrooms are en-suite with traditional bucket showers and flushing toilets, all connected by a communal lounge area. Interior is eloquently furnished in the classic East-African safari style, featuring Cyprus hues of khaki canvas and a host of complimentary amenities. This unit can accommodate a maximum of four guests.

Amenities Include:

• En-suite bathroom
• Lounge area
• Bucket shower
• King sized or twin beds
• Veranda
• Mosquito nets
• Electrical outlets
• Pure cotton linen
• Complimentary laundry service

At Ubuntu Migration Camp, you can expect no less than the finest dining experience the Serengeti has to offer. Featuring three meals per day, comprising a continental bush breakfast, midday picnic lunches and an indulgent three-course evening banquet. With all-inclusive rates, you’re free to indulge in a locally sourced range of alcohol and none-alcoholic beverages at your own discretion. All meals and complimentary bites are included in the initial fee, allowing you to focus on the action at hand without worrying about your next meal. Communal dining is offered as standard, but private tables are available on request. Please note, cellar wines, premium spirits and champaign are charged additionally.

Embark on thrilling daily game drives amid the sprawling, fertile plains of the Serengeti. Seasoned guides, familiar with the lay of the land and the abundance of wildlife that roams it will lead you on a safari game viewing experience of a lifetime. Exotic Big 5 game viewing awaits your gaze, with regular sightings of all the big cats and predator and prey alike as you survey the landscape in open 4×4 safari vehicles.

For all those in search of an authentic, grass-roots great plains safari excursion, a guided bush walk will allow you to soak up the intricacies of the Serengeti while traversing the land at a more intimate and insightful pace than conventional game drives. Knowledgeable guides will discuss with you the features of the land while pointing out local flora and fauna. Watch birds, walk in the footsteps of a lion herd or wildebeest, sit in stillness of the shade of an ancient tree, unravel the stories behind animal tracks or simply enjoy the vistas.

Guests have access to one of many specially modified photographic vehicles (based at either Sayari or Namiri Plains, depending on Ubuntu Migration Camp’s location). The open vehicle allows keen amateurs and professional photographers alike to shoot at eye level with wildlife. It is equipped with all the gear to ensure award-winning shots, from beanbags and camera rests to 360° swivel seats.

Traverse the skies of the Serengeti for an exclusive birds-eye view of the Great Migration below. Watch as vast mammal herds pass beneath you as the morning winds direct your course from the vantage of a basket high in the sky. Please note, hot-air balloon excursions are charged at additional fees and are accessible via external camp location.

The Serengeti-Mara ecosystem is one of Africa’s Endemic Bird Areas, featuring over 500 exotic species waiting for you to discover. Bird watching in the Serengeti is phenomenal year-round, but at its absolute best during November through April. Not only is this when European and North African migratory birds are present, but it is also nesting time for resident species. Keep your eyes peeled for the likes of the black-headed gonolek, Fischer’s lovebird and Verreaux’s eagle.

Take in the atmosphere of the tantalising Serengeti night sky while gathered around a cosy campfire in the company of friends and family. Untarnished by light pollution, the remote areas of the Serengeti bush provide the perfect arena for a picturesque star-gazing experience. Marvel at the infinite sky, which features the Big Dipper in the northern hemisphere and the Southern Cross and Pointers in the south.

Embark on a culturally enlightening excursion to the nearby Kuria village for an insightful taste of Serengeti village life. Stop off at the community vegetable gardens — part of a sustainable development programme managed by Asilia — and collect fresh produce for your dinner. Community interactions help to foster understanding between peoples and encourage fruitful economic activity, as with partnerships between local communities and Asilia camps.

Asilia’s Twende Porini programme welcomes children from local communities so they can get a taste of what a safari is all about and learn the importance of conserving natural environments and wildlife. Most of the children live near conservation areas but don’t fully understand why tourists travel from all over the world to see the animals that they see practically daily. Safari favourites such as lions, buffalo and elephants can be very serious threats to local villages. By taking children on safari, they get to see the animals in their natural state and can learn the importance of each animal in the ecosystem.

Each year, Asilia identifies students who have incredible potential but whose families would not be able to afford supporting them through higher education. This initiative seeks to harness the potential of bright youngsters by providing funding for scholarships and further education. Assistance is given for courses that fall under tourism and teacher-training, and job opportunities are provided on completion of study.

Asilia understands that nature and humans are inseparable partners. They endeavour to support local areas, projects and communities through revenue and awareness created through tourism. Every year Asilia releases a report on the Positive Impact projects to show how these efforts have come to fruition and made real changes. Over 2018 and 2019, Positive Impact made contributions to:

• Offsetting 1,505 tonnes of CO2
• Current total of 44 scholarships
• Chimpanzee Habitation protection
• Community and Conservation projects
• Training local staff
• Developing economies

The population of lions in Africa has decreased by around 50% in the last 25 years as a result of factors like human-lion conflict, bushmeat poaching, and habitat loss. The Lionscape Coalition was formed in 2019 by the Lion Recovery Fund (LRF) for the benefit of lion populations and local businesses. Through the initiative, Africa’s top tourism operators can take a more active role ‘to support on-the-ground conservation work and encourage clients to support the future of lions’. The goal of the Lionscape Coalition is not only to protect lion populations but to also raise awareness of the role lions play in ecosystems and the suffering they’ve experienced as a species.

In 2010, the Serengeti Lion Project (SLP) expanded from the south-eastern Serengeti to work on lion conservation in the parts of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) inhabited by Maasai people. Coexistence has often been difficult as lions will disturb and attack Maasai herds, and the Maasai will retaliate by killing lions. Growth in human populations has also created a barrier for the lions in the area, meaning that they have become isolated and increasingly inbred. The NCA hopes to foster coexistence between lion and human populations and to help enable this they have launched a large water project. Competition over water sources is often what brings herds and wild animals into close contact and creates conflict. By removing this competition, therefore, human-wildlife conflict will be reduced.

Due to the loss of natural habitats and other factors, population of lions have been declining and remain under threat. The Tarangire Lion Project (TLP) has been working to monitor lion prides, mitigate human-wildlife conflict, and to educate and raise awareness about lion conservation among local communities. Asilia supports the TLP, helping to provide equipment for tracking and monitoring lions, staff operations and training. By keeping track of the lion prides the TLP can implement the most effective conservation strategies, especially in the long-term. They are also working with local communities to set up predator-proof bomas so that livestock herds are protected and there is much less retaliation against lion populations.

The grasslands of the Maasai Steppe’s Simanjiro Plains, on the outskirts of the Tarangire National Park, are crucial grazing areas for both wildlife and for the cattle herds belonging to the local Maasai. Factors such as hunting, farming and human population growth have infringed on the balance of grassland available for both pastoral herds and wildlife. In 2004, a group of tourist operators with concerns for the integrity of the ecosystem enlisted the help of the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) to help them engage with Simanjiro villages. The easements resulted from several agreements to keep large parts of land unfarmed so that there are areas where wildlife can graze safely and undisturbed.

The Southern Tanzania Elephant Project (STEP) is an elephant conservation programme that aims to conserve elephant populations and habitats, and to enhance human-elephant coexistence. Their three main initiatives include:

• Monitoring and research – mapping elephant distributions and trends, expanding elephant databases and evaluating effects of poaching to inform management and policy decisions
• Protection – defending elephants against ivory poaching through aerial surveillance, ranger patrols and law enforcement
• Human-elephant coexistence – working with farmers/landowners to reduce damage done by elephants, helping to diversify livelihoods not dependent on farming, working with local authorities to show what drives human-elephant conflict and help resolve it, and helping facilitate safe elephant migration routes

Established over 30 years ago by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), this project monitors changes in the birth and survival rates of cheetahs. With approximately 210 cheetahs in the ecosystem, the research conducted ‘provides invaluable insight into the challenges facing cheetah’ populations and makes huge contributions to planning out conservation strategies that will benefit them. Pictures of cheetahs taken by guests staying at one of Asilia’s camps can directly aid the project because it helps them keep track of cheetahs in the area.

The Honeyguide Foundation is committed to empowering local communities so they can shape their futures, running ‘community-based conservation initiatives across nearly 1.2 million acres of wilderness in Tanzania’. These initiatives have 5 key areas – enterprise development, management and governance, communications, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, and wildlife and habitat protection. Asilia supports 2 of their projects, the K9 Unit and the Chimpanzee Habituation Project.

Honeyguide established the K9 Unit in October 2011 to provide operational assistance to anti-poaching teams and in every area where dogs were used elephant poaching decreased dramatically. A K9 Unit was allocated to the Kilimanjaro region and within 2 years, all elephant poaching ceased. The Chimpanzee Habituation Project was first created by Professor Bernhard Grzimek of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, who released rescued chimpanzees onto Rubondo Island. The project hopes to introduce the chimpanzees to a human presence in a none-threatening way as they are fully habituated into the area.