Why Camels?

Because the journey matters as much as the destination.

For thousands of years, camels have been one of the most elegant ways to travel through some of the world's wildest landscapes. Long before roads reached these hills, they carried families, trade, stories and livelihoods across Northern Kenya. Today, they still offer something increasingly rare: the chance to experience the landscape at its own pace.

Camels have been evolving for more than 40 million years, becoming perfectly adapted to life in harsh, unpredictable environments. They move quietly and efficiently across terrain that vehicles simply cannot reach, allowing us to explore forests, valleys and mountain ridges that remain largely untouched by modern tourism.

We don't ride our camels. Instead, they become our support team.

They carry our camp, water, food and equipment, leaving us free to walk with little more than a daypack. This simple partnership transforms the experience. Rather than rushing from one viewpoint to the next, we become part of the landscape itself.

Unlike vehicles, camels require no roads, no fuel and no permanent infrastructure. They simply follow ancient pathways through the landscape, opening up a world that remains inaccessible to almost everyone else.

Along the way, they browse naturally, selecting leaves, shrubs and branches from an extraordinary variety of native plants. Their diet changes throughout the day as they instinctively choose different botanicals, tannin-rich browse and phenolic-rich plants, taking exactly what their bodies need while leaving remarkably little impact on the environment. We pause while they graze each morning and evening, allowing them to feed as they have done for millennia.

But perhaps the greatest gift the camels give us is something far less tangible.

Travelling with camels is about far more than what they carry.

As herd animals, they are constantly aware of the world around them. They notice scents carried on the wind, subtle movements in the landscape and one another's behaviour. Walking beside them encourages us to become more attentive too—to slow down, observe and tune into the quiet rhythms of the wilderness.

Our relationship with the camels is a partnership. We care for them, ensuring they have time to browse, rest and drink, while they carry the equipment that allows us to journey lightly through this remarkable landscape. It is a quiet, symbiotic relationship built on trust rather than control.

For much of human history, travelling alongside animals was simply part of life. As our world has become faster, noisier and increasingly disconnected from nature, many of us have lost that relationship. Spending days in the company of camels offers something surprisingly restorative: the chance to share your journey with another species, to experience the wilderness through their presence, and to rediscover a slower, more instinctive way of moving through the world.

And where they lead us is perhaps even more extraordinary.

Some places are celebrated around the world. Others remain quietly protected by the communities who have called them home for generations.

The Karisia Hills are one of those places.

Long before modern roads, these forested ridges were crossed by hunters, pastoralists and traders, following ancient pathways that have shaped life here for centuries. Today, very few travellers ever venture into this remarkable corner of Northern Kenya. Apart from the occasional Samburu herder or wildlife ranger, it is entirely possible to spend days without encountering another visitor.

This isn't wilderness that has been designed for tourism. It is wilderness that continues to exist on its own terms.

We feel deeply privileged to be welcomed into these landscapes through our long-standing partnership with the Losorogol family and the Samburu community. It is a privilege we never take for granted, and one we are honoured to share—with respect, curiosity and care—with the small number of guests who choose to walk beside us.

Because, in the end, the camel is not the destination.

It is the key that unlocks a way of travelling that has almost disappeared from the modern world.

A journey where the pace slows, the landscape opens, and the wild is experienced not through a window, but one thoughtful step at a time.