Lake Elementeita Serena Camp

Lord Delamere’s signature profile nicknamed Delamere’s Nose cuts a mark on the vast land that is now Soysambu Conservancy. Keeping with the times, the volcanic massif in the iconic Great Rift Valley is renamed The Sleeping Moran and casts a reflection in the late afternoon. Across the lake from it, we slip into the luxurious tented camp that is Lake Elmenteita Serena Camp.

Soysambu’s story is etched in its stunning landscape and the trials and tribulations of Lord Delamere — that is the third Baron Delamere (1870-1931), the pioneer — who moved to Kenya in 1901 and acquired the land from the colonial government to begin his farming pursuits. Soysambu is the Maa word for striated rocks that mark the terrain.

Close to financial ruin many a time after a string of failures in his agricultural ventures, he persisted, pioneered the East African dairy industry, crossbred cattle — lost all — and still continued. He then tried wheat farming, lost the crop but persisted and is credited with pioneering wheat farming in East Africa and starting a wheat lab on his farm.

He was also the first European to start a maize farm and the first flour mill in Kenya. Eventually, the winds of change began to turn his failures into fortunes.

Old world scandal

Sepia pictures grace the lounge of the luxurious tented camp, reflecting the pioneering era of the Delameres. By the 1920s, more white settlers were arriving in the colony to try their luck — many of them very moneyed — to begin a life of farming in the “white highlands” and leisurely hunting safaris under sultry African skies.

It was the beginning of the “Happy Valley” era; money, power, debauchery, drugs, and finally the unsolved murder in 1941 of Lord Erroll. At the centre of it all was the famous or infamous Lady Diana, who had an affair with Erroll and was supposed to marry him.

Her picture hangs on the door of the ladies’ powder room and, I think, Lord Erroll’s picture is next to her’s on the men’s room door. She eventually married the fourth baron (she married four times) and became Lady Delamere.

Keeping with the 1920s style, the tented camp reflects the era of leisurely camping safaris with signature styled furniture mixed with quaint English antiques like the gramophone and typewriter and antique brass lamps.

Not cramped for style either are the private luxury tents that include, besides the bedroom, a spacious changing room and a shower room to die for. We are high on the volcanic bluff overlooking the lake and the camp for a sundowner and when the sun sets, we follow the flight of a Spotted owl on its night hunt till it disappears into the darkness.

The elegance of dining is an art. The seven-course menu is not to be rushed through and after that, we enjoy a night game drive where the night-time hare springs into action and silhouettes of some flamingoes and white-backed pelicans show by the lake. On the plains, herds of waterbuck, impalas, buffaloes, and other plains game forage.

I am hoping to spot the aardvark or the recently-moved in hippos — three of them coming down River Mbaruk. Instead we catch a male pair of nocturnal White-tailed mongoose battling for territorial rights.

Game and bird walks

After the gourmet meals, it is a morning walk through the conservancy along the lake and the savanna. “The lake was pink-laced (with Flamingoes) until the rains,” says Elijah Wambugu, the resident naturalist.

“The water level is too high and what you see are residents.” For the next two hours, we tick off 20 species.

Back at the camp, I indulge in aromatherapy, to the sound of birds chirping and a cool breeze, at the spa to relax my muscles.

On our way out, we see a herd of the rare Rothschild giraffes. Soysambu Conservancy is home to 65 of them, and its Rothschild’s Giraffe Project is Kenya’s longest running giraffe research project.