Ol Donyo Lodge — operated by Great Plains Conservation in the Mbirikani Group Ranch, a 300,000-acre Maasai community wildlife area adjacent to the Amboseli ecosystem in southern Kenya — is one of East Africa’s finest examples of high-end community conservation tourism. The lodge (8 suites, each with a private plunge pool and Kilimanjaro view terrace, plus a dedicated star-bed platform for sleeping outdoors under the African sky) provides activities impossible inside the national park: walking safari with elephant in open Maasai land, horse safari, community visits to functioning Maasai manyattas, night drives, and the extraordinary private-land wildlife density of a conservancy that protects the corridor between Amboseli and Chyulu Hills. This guide covers the Ol Donyo experience for 2025.
Walking Safari with Elephant
The Ol Donyo walking safari programme — guided walks through the Mbirikani Group Ranch open Maasai savanna with the resident wildlife, including the Amboseli ecosystem elephant herds that use the ranch’s water sources — is the activity that most distinguishes the lodge from any Amboseli National Park stay. The Amboseli elephants (the most intensively studied elephant population in Africa) are fully accustomed to the Mbirikani Maasai presence — when walking with the lodge’s Maasai ranger guide, visitors can approach within 30–40 metres of individual elephants in the bush. The guide’s knowledge of individual elephant identities (the Amboseli Elephant Research Project’s database covers every individual in the ecosystem — the lead guide is trained to identify them) means that each elephant encountered on a walk is introduced with its name, family history, and distinctive tusk pattern. The walk ends with the elephant resuming its feeding and the visitors departing quietly — an encounter that produces none of the engine noise, vehicle smell, or vehicle silhouette that alters elephant behaviour during vehicle-based encounters in the national park.
The Star-Bed Experience
Ol Donyo’s “star-bed” — a sleeping platform on a raised wooden deck adjacent to each suite (retractable roof, single bed with Egyptian cotton sheets, mosquito net, and a hot-water bottle for cold Mbirikani nights at 1,400 m altitude) — is one of East Africa’s most atmospheric sleeping options. Lying under the African night sky at Ol Donyo with Kilimanjaro’s white ice cap visible on the southern horizon (on clear nights, Kilimanjaro is visible from the lodge’s position 60 km north) and the Mbirikani bush sounds of the night (lion calling in the middle distance, hyena whooping, the distant drums of a Maasai ceremony) is an experience that exclusively-vehicle-based safaris never provide. Morning on the star-bed: dawn light growing on Kilimanjaro from the sleeping position — one of East Africa’s most extraordinary waking experiences.
Community Partnership
The Mbirikani Group Ranch (the 300,000-acre Maasai community land on which Ol Donyo operates) is one of Kenya’s most successful community conservation partnerships — Great Plains Conservation’s lease agreement provides: monthly lease payments to the 8,000 Mbirikani Maasai community members, direct employment of 130+ community members in the lodge, a community development fund, and an active anti-snaring programme (snaring of wildlife is the primary threat to the wildlife on the Group Ranch). The Mbirikani “lion warriors” (Maasai men trained and employed as lion monitors and anti-conflict responders) are paid by the lodge to protect both lion (historically killed in retaliation for livestock predation) and the livestock they threaten — the payment for lion protection has reduced lion killing in the Mbirikani area by approximately 85% since 2010.
Cost and Booking 2025
- Rate: USD $700–1,000/night per person all-inclusive (full-board, all activities including safari drives, walks, community visits, star-bed)
- Access: Light aircraft charter from Wilson Airport, Nairobi to Mbirikani Airstrip (45 minutes, USD $150–200 one-way per person)
- Minimum stay: 2 nights recommended, 3 nights optimal to do the walking programme justice
- Book through: greatplainsconservation.com or any specialist Kenya safari operator
