Elewana Elsa’s Kopje Meru

Elsa’s Kopje’s 6 open-fronted cottages are cosily huddled against the hillside overlooking the Park. Elegantly and uniquely designed, each cottage has a main bedroom fitting a double bed or twins, an en suite bathroom and a private deck, aside from Cottage 3 which has a sitting room instead. Every cottage is completed with complimentary dressing gowns, mosquito nets and electrical outlets.

The new spacious family cottage has been built with 2 en suite bedrooms joined by a lounge area that opens up onto a private deck with gorgeous views of the Park. One bedroom comes with a double bed and a deluxe outdoor bath, and the other with twin beds. The Family Cottage is completed with complimentary dressing gowns, mosquito nets and electrical outlets.

Elsa’s hopes to offer the ultimate romantic experience with its 3 Honeymoon Cottages. 2 of these luxurious accommodations consist of a charming main double bedroom, an en suite bathroom, a small private deck and a gorgeous outdoor bath. Meanwhile, the third Cottage is a large and lavish suite stretching over 3 levels, consisting of a bedroom, en suite bathroom, open-plan lounge area and private deck.

With beautiful scenes of the Meru plains and Mount Kenya, Elsa’s Private House is an exclusive accommodation, ideal for families and intimate travel groups looking for that extra bit of seclusion and luxury. The House has 2 bedrooms and an en suite master bedroom with its own bath, dressing room and outdoor shower, and a twin bedroom, also with its own en suite. Those staying here are treated to a large lounge and dining room as well as their own private garden and infinity pool.

All meals are provided and served in the lodge’s on-site restaurant.

Game drives are at the heart of the safari experience. Join Kopje’s expert guides and take to the plains of Meru National Park, where you’ll find a vibrant troupe of diverse wildlife including caracal, the beautiful Lesser Kudu, aardwolf, Grevy’s zebra, gerenuk, Somali ostrich, elephants, rhinos and lions. All vehicles have been specially tailored for maximum comfort while out on safari and have been fitted out with stands and charging points for photography equipment.

Give the vehicles a break and take to the wilds with one of the camp’s expert guides and naturalists. One of the most popular walks takes you to the very top of Mughwango Hill, where you can get brand new glimpses of the Meru plains to the east and of Mt Kenya to the west.

Retire to the banks of one of Meru’s rivers with a fishing rod, a drink and some nibbles!

Bush breakfasts and sundowners are the perfect way to enjoy a hearty meal or refreshing cocktail while surrounded by the natural beauty of the wilderness.

Guests staying at Elsa’s will have the chance to visit the local Tharaka community, where they can meet the locals and learn all about their customs, culture and daily lives.

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, there are already over 2000 children as 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 – elephants will often leave protected reserves and raid the crops of nearby villages, which in turn causes retaliation from the farmers who are losing 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 by providing medical supplies and holding free clinics, and in 2018 they partnered with Ewaso Dispensary in Laikipia. So far, 4,520 patients have been treated free of charge and donated vast sums of medical treatments/equipment including:

• Antibiotics, antihistamines and multivitamins
• Hormonal contraceptives and pregnancy tests
• Blood pressure machines and cuffs
• Syringes and needles
• Oxygen pumps and gauges
• First-aid kits

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. Elsa’s Kopje Meru is nearby to Ura Gate Primary School, one of the schools supported by Elewana and the Foundation. Currently, there are 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.

In 2018, Elewana introduced the ‘ban the bottle’ initiative across its camps to reduce plastic waste by replacing plastic bottles with reusable aluminium bottles. Doing this prevented the waste of 160,000 non-biodegradable plastic bottles from ending up in landfills each year.

Solar energy has become the primary source of power for the Elewana camps and their facilities. This has a really beneficial impact on the environment because solar energy is the most efficient renewable energy source, reduces air pollution by replacing fossil fuels and it doesn’t require water to make energy.