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Ol Kanjau, the “Camp of the Elephants”,
is a traditional style tented camp just three
kilometers east of Amboseli National Park.
The elephant population of the greater Amboseli
Basin at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro now numbers
1000 animals in over 50 matriarchal families
and associated bull groups. The Amboseli elephants
have perhaps the oldest and most intact social
structure of any elephant population in Africa.
They are also the best known and well studied.
Mike and Judy Rainy, their
daughter Jessica and son-in-law Jeff Worden,
are conservationists and ecologists who uniquely
provide the ideal base in Amboseli from which
one may observe and share in the lives of
these most magnificent elephants. The Rainys
and Wordens combine ecotourism and conservation
science in a very special way that helps visitors
play a part in securing a long term future
for these elephants in Amboseli. Their goal
is to help secure an area that can grow with
the expanding Amboseli elephant population,
and which can also accommodate the needs of
the Maasai pastoral people who own the land
around Amboseli Park. Ol Kanjau Camp reveals
in very special way the ecological, behavioral,
and conservation patterns of animal lives
to a visitor that can take a few days to appreciate,
observe and wonder about – the accumulation
of natural history information that the Rainys
and Wordens and many other have taken decades
to build.
The accommodation is tented
and exclusive to groups of 12 visitors or
less. In addition to close elephant watching
some of the other activities which are possible
from Ol Kanjau camp include, day and night
game drives through the plains of Amboseli,
bush walks, bird watching in the vast wetlands
and swamps of Amboseli and the woodlands.
The Rainy have a special and unique relationship
with the Masai allowing for visits to neighboring
Masai settlements. For a real thrill guided
walks with habituated baboon troops. You’ll
also get an inside view into the on going
conservation ecology studies which help balance
the needs of pastoral people and wildlife
and ecosystem conservation.
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