Namiri Plains Camp

The walls of the Guest Tents are built out of calcrete, made from the ashes from the Ngorongoro volcano, which helps to keep the indoor temperature comfortable while the sliding doors offer panoramic views of the Namiri Plains. Guests can admire the stunning landscape from the private viewing deck which runs along the full length of the room. Choose between a double bed or two twins, and relax on soft linen while the serenading sound of the crickets lulls you to sleep. The bathroom features a large shower with river views, and outside, you will find a resin bathtub on the deck.

The Family Tent is similar to the standard guest tents, but features an additional bedroom with your choice of 2 single beds or a double. As with the other tents, the walls are built out of calcrete, made from the ashes from the Ngorongoro volcano, to help maintain a comfortable temperature. Sliding doors run along the length of the room, offering panoramic views of the Namiri Plains. Guests can admire the stunning landscape from the extended private viewing deck. The includes a large shower with river views, and outside, you will find a resin bathtub on the deck. Sit out with your loved ones and relax in the private setting with the incredible backdrop of the sweeping plains and Ngare Nanyuki River.

Guests at Namiri Plains Camp can enjoy freshly made food, all made on-site. Breakfast usually consists of a continental buffet with freshly baked bread, biscuits and muffins. Guests can also order hot meals from the kitchen, such as a Full English breakfast. Lunch features a selection of salads and fresh vegetables, or guests can choose to take a picnic lunch along with them on an extended game drive.

Dinner is served in the evenings and consists of a three-course meal including traditional Swahili dishes as well as meats and salads. Some nights, the camp will hold a large barbecue where guests can enjoy a variety of grilled meals. Guests can choose to dine in the dining tent, or outdoors under the vibrant glimmering sky. The camp’s chefs are able to cater to most dietary needs as long as they are notified before your arrival.

Explore the Serengeti on an exciting game drive with Asilia’s professional guides, and look out for Namiri’s big cats from the comfort of a specially designed safari vehicle. Witness lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, buffalo, wildebeest and zebra in their natural habitat. Guests can enjoy up to two game drives each day, and picnics can be provided at lunchtime. The safari vehicles feature comfy beanbags, power points, and a mini-fridge to keep your refreshments cool. Learn about the incredible inhabitants of the Namiri Plains from the camps guides and see these amazing creatures up close.

Explore the wilderness on foot on a walking safari and get up close to incredible creatures without the disruptive sounds of an engine to scare away the game. Guests can wander the bush with Asilia’s knowledgeable guides and learn about the flora and fauna that live in Eastern Serengeti. Nature walks allow guests to focus on the subtler details of a safari, such as identifying animals tracks, and finding smaller species and exotic insects. Sneak up on the game and watch elephants, giraffes and buffalo behaving naturally in their own habitat. Walking safaris are more intimate and allow guests to form a closer connection to the natural world.

Book a visit to meet the researchers who have been running the Serengeti Cheetah Project since 1970, and learn about the Soit Le Motonyi region’s cheetah population. You can share any cheetah spottings you have had during game drives with the team, and find out about their research and how it supports the local spotted felines. This activity must be arranged in advance.

Balloon safaris offer guests a chance to have a bird’s eye view of the vast plains and take in the incredible wildlife from above. The hot air balloon usually takes off at 6 am from a designated site in the Seronera area. Guests can enjoy floating silently over prowling predators and grazing impala without the noises of an engine to disrupt the game. Watch dramatic shadows shift across the plains as the sun rises higher in the sky, and take in unique sights over the course of this 1-2 hour flight. When you land, a champagne breakfast will be waiting for you, which you can enjoy out in the bush surrounded by wildlife.

Venture out in a specially designed photographic safari vehicle and capture incredible photographs of the wildlife and against the backdrop of the Namiri Plains. The vehicle features drop-down sides so that photographers can shoot from low angles, 360-degree rotational seats, charging points, camera rests and beanbags. The photography vehicle also only has front and back bars to hold up the roof, meaning that there are minimal obstructions between you and the game. The vehicle can accommodate up to 3 photographers and an additional guest in the front. Enjoy a unique photographic opportunity, and capture a variety of images that will impress your friends back home.

Asilia understands that nature and humans are inseparable partners. They endeavour to support local areas, projects and communities through revenue and awareness created through tourism. Every year, Asilia releases a report on the Positive Impact projects to show how these efforts have come to fruition and made real changes. Over 2018 and 2019, Positive Impact made contributions to:

• Offsetting 1,505 tonnes of CO2
• 44 scholarships
• Chimpanzee Habitation protection
• Community and Conservation projects
• Training local staff
• Developing economies

Asilia’s Twende Porini programme welcomes children from local communities so they can get a taste of what a safari is all about and learn the importance of conserving natural environments and wildlife. Most of the children live near conservation areas but don’t fully understand why tourists travel from all over the world to see the animals that they see almost every day. Safari favourites such as lions, buffalo and elephants can be viewed as serious threats to local villages. By taking children on safari they get to see the animals in their natural state and can learn the importance of each animal in the ecosystem.

Each year, Asilia identifies students who have incredible potential but whose families would not be able to afford to support them through higher education and provides them with funding for a scholarship. Assistance is given for courses that fall under tourism, and teacher training and job opportunities are provided on completion of study.

The Honeyguide Foundation is committed to empowering local communities so they can shape their futures and runs ‘community-based conservation initiatives across nearly 1.2 million acres of wilderness in Tanzania’. These initiatives have 5 key areas – enterprise development, management and governance, communications, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, and wildlife and habitat protection. Asilia supports 2 of their projects, the K9 Unit and the Chimpanzee Habituation Project.

Honeyguide established the K9 Unit in October 2011 to provide operational assistance to anti-poaching teams and in every area where dogs were used elephant poaching decreased dramatically. A K9 Unit was allocated to the Kilimanjaro region and within 2 years, all elephant poaching ceased. The Chimpanzee Habituation Project was first created by Professor Bernhard Grzimek of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, who released rescued chimpanzees onto Rubondo Island. The project hopes to introduce the chimpanzees to a human presence in a non-threatening way as they are fully habituated into the area.

In 2010, the Serengeti Lion Project (SLP) expanded from the south-eastern Serengeti to work on lion conservation in the parts of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) inhabited by Maasai people. Coexistence has often been difficult as lions will disturb and attack Maasai herds, and the Maasai will retaliate by killing lions. Growth in human populations has also created a barrier for the lions in the area, meaning that they have become isolated and increasingly inbred.

The NCA hopes to foster coexistence between lion and human populations and to help enable this they have launched a large water project. Competition over water sources is often what brings herds and wild animals into close contact and creates conflict. By removing this competition, human-wildlife conflict will be reduced.

Established over 30 years ago by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), this project monitors any changes in the birth and survival rates of cheetahs. With approximately 210 cheetahs in the ecosystem, the research done ‘provides invaluable insight into the challenges facing cheetah’ populations and makes huge contributions to planning out conservation strategies that will benefit them. Pictures of cheetahs taken by guests staying at one of Asilia’s camps can directly help the project because it helps them keep track of cheetahs in the area.

The Southern Tanzania Elephant Project (STEP) is an elephant conservation programme that aims to conserve elephant populations and habitats, and to enhance human-elephant coexistence. Their 3 main initiatives consist of monitoring and research – mapping elephant distributions and trends, expanding elephant databases and evaluating effects of poaching to inform management and policy decisions.

Protection – defending elephants against ivory poaching through aerial surveillance, ranger patrols and law enforcement. And, human-elephant coexistence – working with farmers/landowners to reduce the damage done by elephants, helping to diversify livelihoods not dependent on farming, working with local authorities to show what drives human-elephant conflict and help resolve it, and helping facilitate safe elephant migration routes.

The grasslands of the Maasai Steppe’s Simanjiro Plains, on the outskirts of the Tarangire National Park, are crucial grazing areas for both wildlife and for the cattle herds belonging to the local Maasai. Factors such as hunting, farming and human population growth have infringed on the balance of grassland available for both pastoral herds and wildlife. In 2004, a group of tourist operators with concerns for the integrity of the ecosystem enlisted the help of the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) to help them engage with Simanjiro villages. The easements resulted from several agreements to keep large parts of land unfarmed so that there are areas where wildlife can graze safely and undisturbed.

Due to the loss of natural habitats and other factors, lion populations have been declining and remain under threat. The Tarangire Lion Project (TLP) has been working to monitor lion prides, mitigate human-wildlife conflict, and to educate and raise awareness about lion conservation among local communities. Asilia supports the TLP, helping to provide equipment for tracking and monitoring lions, staff operations and training. By keeping track of the lion prides, the TLP can implement the most effective conservation strategies, especially in the long term. They are also working with local communities to set up predator-proof bomas so that livestock herds are protected, preventing retaliation against lion populations.

The population of lions in Africa has decreased by around 50% in the last 25 years as a result of factors like human-lion conflict, bushmeat poaching, and habitat loss. The Lionscape Coalition was formed in 2019 by the Lion Recovery Fund (LRF) for the benefit of lion populations and local businesses. Through the initiative, Africa’s top tourism operators can take a more active role ‘to support on-the-ground conservation work and encourage clients to support the future of lions’. The goal of the Lionscape Coalition is not only to protect lion populations but to also raise awareness of the role lions play in ecosystems and the suffering they’ve experienced as a species.