Kicheche Mara Camp

Where do I even start. Our experience with Kicheche Mara North was a magical experience from begin to end. It was extremely sad to leave this place. From the moment you arrive at the camp you are receive the most warm welcome from camp manager Makenna. The safaris drives are incredible. We were blessed with many special sightings from Elephants families, several cheetahs, lions and the elusive serval cat. On our first evening drive we also met one of the resident female leopards although for a very short sighting. Our guides Lydia and Peter were exceptional. Full of knowledge, passion for the bush and wildlife and just great human beings. We loved talking to them and really getting to know them as individuals. Chef Dickson was amazing. Each meal was cooked to perfection and his fun personality on full display everyday. The food was varied every day and nothing could be faulted. Our waiter Patrick was such a wonderful person. Always had a genuine smile and took such great care of us. Overall this camp is ran amazingly well. They have a great team of people that really care and you can see it the whole way through. Thank you again guys and we hope to be back soon to the magical Mara North!

We stayed here as a family of four just before Christmas. Set in the Mara North conservancy there are some great advantages of this; namely plenty of game without the hoards of vehicles. With a five vehicle rule around game it is never too crowded. The camp itself is lovely and very much within the Kicheche model. You can see that there is a staff guide for the Kicheche routine. And the reason I only gave this review four stars was that it felt at times that staff were just going through the mandated routine. The manager and his deputy were in the places they were directed to be but they weren’t really present. Having stayed at the Laikipia sister camp directly before this one, we could feel the difference. Liakipia had much better attention to detail, was friendlier and felt more special. That’s not to say the Mara North camp wasn’t great - it was, but it wasn’t as good. For example we didn’t have hot water during our stay; it was tepid at best. The ‘photography tent’ which they made a big play about didn’t have any leads to plug cameras into their computer and the card reader didn’t take a CF card for the more professional cameras. Game drives at times felt a little mechanical too but on the whole were great. The guides know exactly where each of the big cats are (apart from leopard obviously) so you are almost guaranteed to see lion and cheetah. You are likely to see the same ones every day. Overall a great camp, just a little disappointing compared to their sister camp at Liakipia.