About Il Ngwesi Eco-Lodge

Il Ngwesi Eco-Lodge: Our full report

Il Ngwesi Eco-Lodge is a rustic, six-room lodge crowning a bush-covered hill on the Il Ngwesi Group Ranch, ...

... a community conservation and livestock region in northern Laikipia, north of the Lewa Conservancy. Built in 1996, the lodge is owned, managed and staffed entirely by members of the Il Ngwesi Maasai community. A stay here combines cultural immersion with wildlife-viewing by vehicle and on foot and an opportunity for some very relaxing down time.

On arrival at the lodge car park, you'll be met by a welcoming committee of staff dressed in brilliant red traditional robes. They'll escort you up a narrow, winding footpath through the bush to the main dining terrace, which also acts as the lodge bar and reception. Here you'll be briefed on where you are, what to expect and in a gentle way on how to behave. Il Ngwesi is a remote lodge in a wild location where elephants and other wildlife command respect, it is not fenced, and you will be reminded that you should only walk out of its immediate confines when accompanied by an escort.

You will quickly get to know Il Ngwesi's central areas, which include the bar and dining terrace, which is partly shaded, and a picturesque wooden deck extending out among the trees. Here, you get excellent views across the bush on the eastern side of the lodge. A minute's walk away along the main footpath, and further up the ridge, you come to the small, free-form infinity pool and partly shaded pool terrace, backed by comfortable seating. This is where lunch is usually taken, and you can order drinks and while away a hot afternoon gazing out across the valley towards the steep wall of the Mukogodo Escarpment on the lodge's western side. The pool terrace and the main dining terrace at reception are connected by two paths through the bush, one of which gives access to the back-of-house areas, the kitchen, and the small crafts and curios shop, where you can buy locally made beadwork, basketry, clothing and gifts.

The ridge-like hill on which Il Ngwesi sits runs north to south in the shape of a split almond. Linked from the main path running along its spine, other footpaths run down the western slope of the hill through the bush to the lodge's six open-sided rooms or cottages. These were highly innovative creations when the lodge was first built in 1996, and their basic style has been widely copied across Kenya.

It's perhaps easiest to appreciate the lodge's guest accommodation by looking at our photos: each large room stands on wooden piles on the hillside, on top of which a broad wooden floor is mounted, through which various tree trunks and branches protrude. The rear wall is built up from a framework of large branches of dead wood and chicken wire, thickly plastered with adobe-coloured cement, and the whole building is protected by a steeply pitched, thatched roof drooping low over the completely open front side, where a deck extends out above the hillside. The overall effect is slightly cave-like, giving a sense that the lodge hasn't so much been built as excavated out of the living environment.

The rooms are all numbered from north to south and named: #1 is Emuny (“Rhino" – the so-called “Prince William room" where the royal couple stayed and which is usually considered a honeymoon suite as it has the most private location, on the northwest edge of the hill, closest to the waterhole); #2 Oltome (“Elephant"); #3 Orgatuny (“Lion"); #4 Osiruwa (“Eland"); #5 Olarro (“Buffalo"); and #6 Emára (“Giraffe"). Rooms #2 and #3 are usually used for families as they are closely connected by a little wooden bridge and have walls along their deck sides.

Two of the rooms, #5 and #1 have extra-large decks, with only a low barrier of branches at the edge. Instead of ordinary double beds, these rooms are furnished with “star beds" – double beds on wheels that can be pulled out onto the deck for a night under the stars.

At one end of each cottage, a wash basin, washstand and toilet are slightly separated for visual privacy from the main lounge and living area. In most rooms, the “loo with a view" offers a very unobstructed panorama over the bush. Down a flight of steps there's a separate outdoor, walled shower, completely open to the sky, supplied with Kenyan natural Cinnabar Green toiletries.

Just being at Il Ngwesi and walking along its network of sandy footpaths is rewarding. As you make your way from your room to the pool or dining terrace, you're almost enveloped in greenery at certain times of year, and you may spot dik-diks and other smaller wildlife foraging in the undergrowth. The birdlife is wonderful, and Von der Decken's hornbills are particularly common and tame. Birders can happily expect to sit for hours on their decks with binoculars in hand and from December to March there are always Palearctic migrants in the area. At the height of the long dry season – roughly from July to October – Il Ngwesi's waterhole attracts game from a wide radius, including large herds of elephants that file along the valley. On our last visit we were delighted to view wild dogs and striped hyena at the waterhole early one morning. If you want to get closer to the waterhole you can be accompanied down the hillside to a bench and lookout point that serves as an informal hide.

More strenuous activities for the next day are discussed with the manager every evening. Exploring the area on foot, always with at least one Maasai guide and an armed ranger, is a popular option, and many visitors decide to have a go at climbing the Mukogodo Escarpment facing the lodge. It's a fantastic hike, if at times quite steep, and offers superb views across northern Kenya. There are several points where you can stop and call it a day – climbing right to the top and back takes around four to six hours depending on your level of fitness. You'll need to make an early start to get as much as possible of the climbing done before the heat really kicks in.

Less energetically, you can do shorter nature walks along the sandy valley floor, or walk north for an hour or two for breakfast by the usually dry river bed. If you set out early enough, or in late afternoon, the river walk can become a productive game walk, and its fun to see how close you creep up on the local warthogs, waterbuck, gerenuk, lesser kudu, giraffe and other grazers and browsers before they sense you and melt into the bush. If you set off in the lodge vehicle, on the other hand, you can do a conventional game drives and often approach the wildlife quite closely. The lodge has two open Land Cruisers (room for up to six in the back and one in the front) and one covered Land Cruiser that is used for transfers. In the November/December short rainy season, elephants can be very abundant, but you're likely to spot them at most times of the year and you won't be allowed to approach them when on foot. Don't expect to see many predators, if any. The big cats – particularly leopards – are about, but they rarely show themselves. A night game drive may be your best chance of spotting a lion, as we did.

Il Ngwesi Group Ranch has had a long-time relationship with Lewa's rhino conservation programme, and currently maintains two white rhinos in a 300 hectare (740 acre) special sanctuary which you can also visit, often combined with a walking safari.

There have been long-term plans to move fence lines to allow the movement of wildlife between Lewa, Borana and Il Ngwesi. In time this is likely to see the concentration of wildlife around Il Ngwesi increase and animals become increasingly habituated. Lewa and Borana are known for their high numbers of rhinos, both black and white, and once security measures have been put in place it is hoped the black rhinos will then start to move into the Il Ngwesi conservancy.

Other activities include a late afternoon village visit and goat roast (at extra cost) which is usually most successful in a larger group, when the visitor-Maasai interaction can become a bit more like a party and a bit less like outside observers visiting subjects, albeit welcoming ones.

Il Ngwesi also have a small spa with a local therapist. Massages and spa treatments are reasonably priced, starting at around $30 USD for a 30-minute massage. There is also a curio shop stocking locally produced beadwork and jewellery.