Elewana Serengeti Pioneer Camp

The 11 Luxury Safari Tents stand on elevated wooden decks, offering guests amazing views from the private verandahs that face out over the vast plains of the Serengeti. Enjoy sitting out on the deck chairs, watching the sun dip below the horizon with a drink in your hand in the heart of a still and tranquil haven, disrupted only by the passing wildlife. The bedrooms are furnished with comfy double beds, fitted with soft linen, which can be converted into twins as necessary.

The interior has a 1930s style with copper basins, old-fashioned trunks used as seating and surfaces, and an old-fashioned writing desk. The room is lit with period-style lamps. Leading on from the main room, guests will find an en-suite bathroom with a flush toilet, basin, and indoor shower. The bathroom’s water is all heated using solar power, causing no carbon emissions.

The Family Tent consists of 2 luxury tented rooms, with independent en-suite bathrooms, joined by a shared living room area. The bedrooms are much the same as the luxury tented rooms, with comfy beds, fitted with soft linen, and a 1930s-inspired design. One of the rooms has a double bed, and the other consists of two twins. Both en-suite bathrooms include a flush toilet, copper basin, and indoor shower, and the bathroom’s water is heated using solar power. Guests can choose between relaxing indoors or out on the private verandah that overlooks the sweeping plains where gazelle wander across the horizon.

Guests at Elewana Serengeti Pioneer Camp can enjoy three delicious meals a day. Start the day with a light breakfast of fruit, cereal, and freshly-baked pastries. Hot meals, such as the camp’s Serengeti omelette, are also available to order before embarking on your first activity of the day.

Lunch is a three-course meal, with a choice between a red meat dish, white meat dish, or vegetarian option. Alternatively, guests can choose to take a picnic out to the bush during a game drive so that they can optimise their time in the wilderness.

Return to camp for a mouth-watering 4-course dinner, starting with soup and concluding with a sweet dessert, before enjoying a cocktail under the stars.

Guests can enjoy exciting game drives from Serengeti Pioneer Camp, due to its location beside the Serengeti National Park. Witness lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, wildebeest and zebra in their natural habitat from the comfort of a specially designed safari vehicle. During the Great Migration calving season (January – March) guests can witness as 400,000 calves are introduced to the world, attracting scores of lions, cheetahs and crocodiles who are lured in by the easy prey. Serengeti’s incredible wildlife is not just limited to the Great Migration and year-round guests can expect incredible game viewing including the Big 5. Learn about the amazing animals that live in the wilderness from the knowledgable guides and capture incredible photographs to preserve your unique safari memories.

Enjoy a delicious gourmet breakfast or lunch picnic against the backdrop of the Serengeti plains. Guests are able to travel to a private hilltop picnic site that offers beautiful views of the landscape. The camp’s chefs will prepare a mouth-watering meal for you as you gaze out of the scenery and listen to the sounds of the wildlife within Serengeti National Park.

Visit the picturesque Lake Magadi and view the abundant pink flamingo who make the salt pan lake their home during the wet season. Magadi is also home to many other bird species year-round. The 32 km pan lake has a high salt content, which gives the water its stunning pink colour.

Guests can travel to the rocky outcrop of Moru Kopjes to view the ancient paintings of the Maasai people. Many of the boulders are marked with artworks, while others create musical sounds when they are hit, earning them the name gong rocks. These were once used as a form of communication between Maasai people. Visit this historical site and learn about the land’s history and the heritage of those who live here.

Experience a safari from the skies and view ginormous elephants from a unique perspective. Balloon safaris offer guests a chance to have a bird’s eye view of the Serengeti, allowing you to take in the vast landscape and view the incredible wildlife from above. Balloon safaris must be arranged in advance.

Elewana is a steadfast partner and supporter of the Land and Life Foundation, a charity committed to supporting local people and preserving wildlife and their habitats. Because Elewana covers 100% of their operational costs, all donations can go straight towards their amazing projects. The Foundation focuses on 4 types of programs to achieve its goals: the Wildlife Warrior Program, nature conservation, medical support, and education support.

The Wildlife Warriors Program was designed for the purposes of sharing conservational knowledge between generations, encouraging innovative thinking and proactivity in wildlife conservation. It’s the ultimate aim to take the most talented children through to tertiary levels of education so they can become the top conservationists of the next generation. Across Tanzania and Kenya, over 2000 children are part of this program, and around 40 have been awarded scholarships that will take them all the way through their primary and secondary education.

Elewana is committed to its responsibility of nature conservation, with a focus on protecting areas that fall outside of national parks and reserves. The Land and Life Foundation is working on a large scale project to mitigate conflict between human and elephant populations. Conflict occurs when elephants leave protected reserves and raid the crops of nearby villages, causing retaliation from the farmers who are trying to defend their livelihoods. For this reason, there are programs designed to negate these hostilities by protecting farming lands and providing safe deterrents to ward away the elephants without harming them before they can damage crops.

The Land and Life Foundation works to ensure local communities in Laikipia and the Maasai Mara have access to quality healthcare. They have been supporting the Aitong Health Centre in the Maasai Mara for 8 years through providing medical supplies and free clinics, and in 2018 they partnered with Ewaso Dispensary in Laikipia. So far, 4,520 patients have been treated free of charge and vast sums of medical treatments and equipment have been provided by donors such as antibiotics, antihistamines, multivitamins, hormonal contraceptives, pregnancy tests, blood pressure machines and cuffs, syringes and needles, oxygen pumps and gauges, and first-aid kits.

The Land and Life Foundation supports a number of schools in key conservation areas across Tanzania and Kenya as they understand the need of ensuring that communities in these areas can actively benefit from tourism. One of the schools supported by Elewana and the Foundation is Ura Gate Primary School, where there are currently 385 children and 15 teachers. Fundraising has helped the school’s infrastructure to support this student population through developing 12 permanent classrooms, a dining hall and kitchen, a toilet block, a computer room and 3 houses for teachers.

Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers founded Zoo Check in 1984 to fight against the mistreatment of zoo animals and for their welfare after the premature death of an orphaned elephant Pole Pole. Zoo Check would later become the Born Free Foundation in 1998. The Foundation now encompasses numerous campaigns including Zoo Check, the Elefriends Campaign, Wolf Campaign, Dolphin Campaign, Primate Campaign, Big Cat Campaign, and the Bear Campaign. It’s their aim to change attitudes towards animal captivity and promote the welfare of animals across the globe.

Elewana has banned plastic bottles at their camps and lodges and provides each new guest with a reusable aluminium bottle that can be filled up at the properties.

‘Historically, when reusable bottles were introduced to six of Elewana’s camps in Kenya, this was shown to prevent over 160,000 non-biodegradable plastic bottles a year from ending up in landfills. At the beginning of 2019, we were the first in East Africa to eliminate the use of plastic straws. We now offer biodegradable paper straws and encourage guests to go to ‘War with the straw’.’

Elewana’s camps and lodges also employ recycling systems to reduce waste. For instance, glass is sent to the Shanga workshop in Arusha, where disadvantaged Tanzanians are able to use the glass for creating artwork and jewellery.

Elewana Serengeti Pioneer Camp uses solar-powered water heaters to provide hot water for guests’ bathrooms and works to be a ‘zero footprint’ camp. By working to be carbon neutral, Serengeti Pioneer Camp is minimizing its impact on the environment and local area.

‘All of Elewana’s camps and lodges have been designed to have as little impact as possible on their surroundings. Many of our camps employ state-of-the-art power systems, with solar and power storage technology to ensure minimal emissions and fuel use.’