In the Maa language, entumoto means "meeting point". At Entumoto Safari Camp it describes the place itself — a quiet valley where the hills meet the plains on the eastern border of the Maasai Mara — and the idea behind it: people coming together to share the Mara.
A friendship that found a valley
The story starts long before the camp. Karl von Heland's grandfather, Erik, managed Karen Blixen's coffee farm outside Nairobi from 1919 to 1922, and the family kept coming back to East Africa. Generations later, Karl asked Rimoine Ole Kararei, then a young Maasai student at Nairobi University, to find the right spot for a camp. Rimoine found the valley beside the reserve, and building began in 2009.
A conservancy, not just a camp
Entumoto sits in the Mara Siana Conservancy. Landowners gathered under a tree to sign the first leases instead of subdividing their land, and the conservancy now protects more than 35,000 acres of the Sekenani Valley. Because it is a conservancy, guests can walk with Maasai guides and drive off-road and after dark — things the reserve itself does not allow. Sekenani Gate is about half an hour away.
Fourteen tents, no fences
There are fourteen tents in three kinds: Luxury Tents with a veranda over the valley, Luxury Family Tents with two bedrooms around a lounge with a fireplace, and Classic Tents closer to the main lounge and pool. The camp has no fences, so wildlife moves freely through it. Water comes from its own well and filtration plant, vegetables from an organic garden, and power almost entirely from the sun.
Days end at the campfire by the main lounge, then three courses in the dining tent. The camp sits at about 1,500 to 1,900 metres, so evenings are cool — which is what the wood-fired sauna is for.
Owned partly by the people who run it
More than 80% of the team comes from nearby villages. Three long-serving team members — camp manager John Murage Ndirangu, CFO Festus Mbindyo and senior guide Isaac Kasura — are part of the ownership group, and Purity Sanchu, one of the first female Maasai safari guides, guides here.
