Maasai Mara Safari Lodge | House in the Wild

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We are driven by 3 promises:

Restoring Biodiversity
Improving livelihoods
Providing extraordinary experiences

The Story

What's our story?

House in the Wild was once a mud hut on a bean farm surrounded by degraded and severely overgrazed land...

It is now a boutique lodge in a thriving community driven conservation project.

Since 2012, the land surrounding the House in the Wild, has been devoted to a pioneering re-wilding project in partnership with the Maasai community. Using grazing animals as the drivers of habitat creation, and with the restoration of dynamic, natural water courses, the project has seen extraordinary increases in wildlife and improved quality of well managed livestock.

The transformation of the area has been inspiring, with common sightings now of wild dog, leopard and of course the resident pride of lion in the Enonkishu Conservancy.

Naretoi is the first project of its kind where the land on the edge of the Mara has changed from farming back to nature.

It is now an an endearing story of hope, growth and progress, and offers warm hospitality and the chance to restore, relax and nurture a sense of place while on safari. Our guests leave feeling inspired, re-awakened and ready to plan their trip back...

Tarquin's grandfather, Sir Michael Wood was a pioneer and innovator in the fields of aviation, medicine and agriculture. In the 1950's he started farming in Tanzania, and cleared land for crops to feed a growing nation.

He had a farm on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and one day over sundowners, with his fellow AMREF founders, they came up with a plan of improving healthcare in rural Africa by setting up the Flying Doctors.

It was in the days before independence from Britain when millions of people living in remote areas had no access to proper medical treatment. His plan was to take specialised and essential health care to the small bush hospitals that were isolated by terrain and inadequate means of communication. He also connected these remote hospitals to expert medical advice by setting up a radio network with Nairobi as the hub. It was a daunting task but he had huge vision, charisma, deep compassion and enormous courage to explore medical frontiers.

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Tarquin's parents, Hugo and Rachel Wood, also pioneers in agriculture in Kenya, had been leasing land from the Maasai community and farming it outside of Narok for over 20 years. Hugo and Rachel set up the Cereal Growers Association where they helped rural farmers in the area with best farming practices.

As their farm business grew, they were presented with an opportunity to create a farm on the Mara River, where they could irrigate and grow crops.

Tarquin joined the family business to run the Mara farm. For over a decade this was one of the largest french bean farms in Kenya, where beans were grown and exported to the UK. Lippa and Tarquin got married on a meander on the Mara river. House in the Wild was built - a mud hut on a corner of the farm.

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Soon after they were married, Tarquin and Lippa Wood took on the Olerai farm and began working with the neighbouring community, with the aim of securing and restoring habitats and making the community benefit directly from wildlife.

Through a game of cricket, Brett and Sue Sievwright visited the Olerai Farm. With a huge passion for conservation and protecting wildlife for future generations, they believed in the Wood family and their vision and invested in the Olerai farm and the Enonkishu Conservancy.

A partnership was formed and Enonkishu was created. The Maasai families put all of their livestock into 1 herd and began a holistic grazing management program.

Over many years the partnership with the community has strengthened, and the stakeholders of Enonkishu Conservancy are united in a shared vision for the future of the area

Seeing is believing, so the Woods embarked on several learning trips to understand how livestock and wildlife can thrive together.

"We learnt about the importance of looking after the grass and regenerative grazing. Slowly our grasslands improved, the livestock was better managed, and the wildlife returned."

In our commitment to restoring habitats and using eco tourism as a force for good, we are creating our own private home on the top of the Kileleoni Hill, the highest point in the Mara, creating an utterly unique place to experience the enormous views of the Mara Serengeti ecosystem, looking over the landscape from above, bringing in revenue for community led conservation.

We are so lucky to have the opportunity to build and create an incredible private home on the highest point of the Mara Serengeti Ecostystem.

The initial idea was to do a simple fly camp, however the strong winds on the hill in the night blew away those plans. Together with the Sievwright family, every detail has been carefully designed to embrace the conservation story and history of the area, built with grass roofs, water catchment, stone from the hill, creating employment and embracing nature all around.

The elders call the hill Kipleleo, pronounced Kipeleo ; that is the name we will use:

We can't wait to say "Welcome to Kipeleo"

From conflict to coexistance

The award winning Enonkishu Conservancy is a partnership between the Maasai families who own land in the area, the House in the Wild and Naretoi. It has a large density and variety of game within it, and over the last 10 years, it has gone through a pioneering restoration project, from barren and degraded land to a world class conservation area, where animals migrate freely in between the neighbouring conservancies.

There is a resident pride of lion, plenty of leopard and in the dry season elephants take refuge in the shade of the forests and browse on the branches of the trees on the Kileleoni Hill. Night drives are offered and honey badgers, porcupines and ant bears can often be seen.

Conservation fees are distributed to the landowning community and allow guests to traverse through Enonkishu, Lemek and Ol Chorro Oiruwa conservancies, offering some spectacular landscapes and wildlife.

"Utterly unique"

We offer guests the opportunity to experience a life changing journey in an utterly unique and inspiring space, alongside a world class safari experience with warm hearted hospitality.

The little things make the big difference and we make sure we use locally sourced or hand made items wherever we can. Hand crafted furniture, beeswax candles, soaps made by Kenyan artisans, outside showers built from the natural rock, gin that gives back to conservation - everything has a story and everything has a "Wild" ethos.

We celebrate all safari moments - morning coffees on the plains, sundowners looking over a watering hole, being with loved ones around the campfire, dining under the stars or by the open fire in our candle lit dining room, we always make it special and we always add our Wild Style.

COLLECTION IN THE WILD

What's our story?

CELEBRATING THE END OF COVID!

From conflict to coexistance

"Utterly unique"