Ol Pejeta, and the last two.
The largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa, and the only place on earth where you can stand near a northern white rhino. There are two left.
Two nights and no more: black rhino tracked on foot, the chimpanzee sanctuary, and the last two northern white rhino on earth.
- From
- $3,600 pp
- Duration
- 2 nights
- Best months
- Year-round
- Party size
- 2 – 8 guests
A conservation story told by the people running it
Ol Pejeta is 90,000 acres of former cattle ranch on the Laikipia plateau, and it holds around 140 black rhino — the largest population in East Africa — alongside white rhino, the big cats, and a chimpanzee sanctuary that takes rescued animals from central Africa. It is also where Najin and Fatu live: the last two northern white rhino in existence, both female, both under 24-hour armed guard.
Two nights is right. This is a conservancy rather than a wilderness — there are fences, cattle, research vehicles and a working operation, and the interest is precisely that. You spend a morning tracking rhino on foot with the ranger teams and an afternoon understanding how a reserve pays for 190 rangers and a veterinary unit. Guests routinely describe it as the part of their journey they think about afterwards.
It sits ninety minutes by road from Nanyuki and forty minutes by air from Samburu, which makes it the easiest conservation leg to attach to almost any Kenyan itinerary.
- Tracking black rhino on foot with the ranger team
- Time with Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhino
- The Sweetwaters chimpanzee sanctuary and its rescue stories
- Lion research with the Ol Pejeta predator team, when they are working
- Night drives — this is one of the few Kenyan reserves permitting them
- Mount Kenya filling the southern horizon on a clear morning
Ideal traveller
Families with older children, conservation-minded travellers, and anyone with two spare nights between Nairobi and the north. Excellent as a first or last leg.
The itinerary
Into Laikipia
Flown to Nanyuki or driven up from Nairobi through the highlands. Afternoon game drive to the rhino sanctuary, and a night drive after dinner — aardvark, genet, and the cats that move once it is dark.
Rhino on foot, and the chimpanzees
A morning tracking black rhino with the ranger team, on foot, at a distance decided by them. Afternoon at Sweetwaters, then time with Najin and Fatu and the men who have guarded them for a decade.
Onward
A last drive at dawn, then forty minutes by air to Samburu or ninety by road to a Laikipia ranch. Very few guests fly back to Nairobi from here.
A tented camp, or the house on the hill
Our standard is a small tented camp inside the conservancy with a waterhole in front of it, which black rhino use at night — there is a hide, and it is worth the cold.
For families and groups we use a six-bedroom house with its own vehicle, chef and staff, which works out cheaper per head above six guests and removes every constraint about mealtimes and bedtimes.
Both put a share of the nightly rate directly into conservancy operations, which on Ol Pejeta funds 190 rangers, a canine anti-poaching unit and a veterinary team. It is itemised, and you can ask to see the numbers.
What the price covers
- Two nights as described, all meals and house drinks
- A private guide and vehicle throughout
- Flights or road transfer from Nairobi, and the onward leg
- Conservancy fees and the conservation levy
- Rhino tracking on foot, night drive, and the chimpanzee sanctuary
- Airport meet-and-greet, fast-track and day rooms
- 24-hour Nairobi concierge, answered by a person
What it does not
- International flights and visas
- Travel insurance — required; we will help you compare
- Lion-collaring participation, when available ($350 pp to the research fund)
- Horse riding and mountain biking on the conservancy
- Gratuities, at your discretion
Genuinely year-round: at 1,800m the climate is mild, tracks are all-weather and the rhino do not migrate. January to March and June to October are driest. Even in the long rains this leg works when others do not, which is why we often use it in May.
Shall we hold the dates while you think?
Tell us the month and we will send a costed draft of this journey, with the camps held provisionally at no charge. A written reply within one working day, from the specialist who will run it.
On Ol Pejeta
Will we definitely see rhino?
As close to certain as anything on a safari gets — around 140 black and a substantial white rhino population inside a fenced 90,000 acres, tracked daily by rangers who know where they slept. This is the reason people come here for two nights rather than four.
Is it a real wilderness?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. It is a working conservancy with fences, cattle, research teams and infrastructure. What it offers instead is access — on foot, with the people doing the work — which no unfenced wilderness can give you.
Is it suitable for children?
Among the best places in Kenya for them. Rhino on foot, chimpanzees with names and histories, rangers who will answer any question, and a house option where nobody has to be quiet at dinner. From age six; the walking from eight.
Can we see the northern white rhino?
Yes — Najin and Fatu are visited in the company of their keepers, at close range, and the encounter is quiet and quite sad. It is the single most affecting twenty minutes we sell.