Fly camping - what to expect for a night under the stars
You have booked your stay at The Safari Series and can’t wait for the adventure to start! Ed and Moon have suggested doing a fly camp - it sounds kind of fun, but you feel a little nervous of spending the night out in the middle of the conservancy…
Sound familiar?! Well, read on below for some more information to put your mind at rest that a night under the stars is the best decision you can make!
The fly camp is called so due to the old school way of setting up somewhere to sleep, way back in the day, when the first safari-goers were making their way across Kenya. The ‘fly’ refers not to the small annoying bug but instead to the ‘fly sheet’ that was hung up to sleep under. In some way, our fly camp still is reminiscent of these old ways of camping, but now we prefer to add a few more ‘camp comforts’.
You will be asked to pack a small bag of things (rather than your whole suitcase) to take with you before heading off from the main camp. A few suggestions of what to bring include:
Warm jumper and/or jacket
Thick socks
Trousers
Headtorch (if you have one, we will bring a normal torch for you)
Phone / camera
Binoculars & bird book
Toothbrush & washbag
Pijamas
Ear plugs and/or eye mask (although who doesn’t love going to sleep listening to the crickets and looking at the stars?!)
Next day clothes
A couple of things not to bring:
Too much! It is only one night and we will make sure you are well cared for
Any type of material that will collect dust / dirt / grass
Speaker and/or music - we are to be respectful of the conservancy and nature so not making too much noise is important
Excess plastic or paper - we want to leave the area as we found it; rubbish-free
Anything too white!
Once you have left the camp, we will take you bags and the the fly camp and set it up in a specific location. This location changes depending on how big the group is, the time of year and where the wildlife is. We do have a good spot that we like to use though, called Dam Samaki.
The camp is set up with a dining area, a fire to enjoy after dinner, a sleeping area, a bathroom area and a kitchen area. We bring with us a couple of our great staff members, including Fifi (the Queen of the fly camp!), Elijah (who acts as an askari for the night) and the guide who was driving your car. Ed often joins as he can’t resist a night under the stars.
Each guests will sleep on a simple folding bed, with a mattress, sheets, pillow and even a hot water bottle! We add a ‘dome’ tent over the top - this tent is made from mosquito net material and is simply to make our guests feel safe, not because there are any mosquitoes. Each bed can be a single of double, and comes with a handwashing station to make sure you go to bed feeling clean. We have a bush toilet tucked around the corner for guests to use, too.
Once settled in, we can crack open a cold beer or two and watch the sun set over the stunning landscape. Dinner will be prepared for you and can be anything from a ‘live cooking’ of steaks on our mini BBQ to an epic pizza making marathon in Ed’s self-made mobile pizza oven.
Finish the night with a quick tot of whiskey to ensure a good night of sleep before heading to bed. An early wake up is just around the corner in order to watch the sun rise and do a game drive to see how far away those hyenas you heard really are!
