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About Ilkeliani
Ilkeliani is an eco-friendly permanent luxury tented camp, centrally located in the Maasai Mara. Camp environs have been intentionally preserved so as to feel as close as possible to nature. Ilkeliani has 17 tents with each guest tent positioned on the edge of the Talek River looking out onto the Maasai Mara plains.
Guest tents are also well spaced out thereby ensuring that guests have maximum privacy. Lighting is provided by solar power and all tents are en suite with flush toilets and hot water showers 24 hours (we use a recycled by-product as fuel to keep the boilers hot).
Ilkeliani is the name given to the age group of the young Maasai warrior. The young warrior is thus an ilkeliani before he becomes the il Moran.To become a warrior is the dream of every Maasai youth; the word itself seems to convey magical powers.
A warrior must be strong, clever, courageous, confident, wise and gentle. Warriors enjoy great comradeship, sharing with one another everything from food to girl friends.
In addition to the practical services they provide for the group they live among, warriors also add an immeasurable sense of excitement, adventure, and romance; without their songs, their poetry, their flirting, their bold masculinity, Maasai life would not be the same. |
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Ilkeliani Experience
The Ilkeliani experience is one enjoyed entirely under canvas, and a very personal affair...
We accommodate a maximum of 30 guests at any one time. Personal attention and care is paramount to our service delivery. We offer extended game drives with the proficient help of your experienced Masai driver guide who has an intimate knowledge of the Game Reserve. The camps Resident Naturalist conducts daily nature walks along the Talek River and guests can identify different animal spoors and spot the diverse Birdlife in the camps extensive grounds . Excursions to the Masai village are encouraged to enrich ones appreciation of the Maasai Culture.
All meals are prepared by the camps chefs, offering hearty breakfasts, alfresco lunches and candle light dinners in the Mess Tent. Picnic breakfast/ Lunches are prepared if you prefer to stay out and explore the reserve all day long. A camp fire is lit from 6 pm onwards and the safari experience is shared with fellow guests while enjoying a "tusker"/drinks. Biting are served with Sundowner. |
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The Maasai
The Maasai Peoples can be found dotted in red shuka’s (cloths used as loose clothing) traversing the parks, the Maasai roam freely with the wild animals. In fact the Maasai will travel long distances in search for pasture for their cattle.
Traditionally the Maasai are a cattle-keeping people. Cattle provide almost all their daily needs, milk and blood for drinking, hides for leather and meat on ceremonial occasions. The strong almost mystical bond the Maasai have with their cattle together with the fact that they inhabit a semi-arid environment, forces them to live a semi-nomadic life as they search for good pastures and water for their herds. Ownership of cattle is a sign of the Maasai’s wealth and prosperity. |
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Maasai Mara
The Maasai Mara Game Reserve forms the northern part of the Serengeti / Mara Ecosystem.One of the most spectacular and breathtaking events on the planet - the Great Migration involves a mass movement of millions of wildebeest and zebras as they track annually, a circular route around the Mara Reserve in search for pastures and water.
The rumbling hooves, the shaky grounds and the clouds of dust they leave behind have become a mark of the Mara, as well as strong migratory instinct that dares crocodile-infested rivers, rushing currents, trampled risks and prides and packs of predators awaiting this mass arrival. A 500km trek from South of the Serengeti to the north of the Maasai Mara National Reserve, the Migration is definitely Africa's greatest wildlife performance and one of the world's most natural phenomena.
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