The Masai Mara Game Reserve is world famous for its wildlife, and especially the wildebeest migration. And of course its world class and unique lodges.
One of these is the eco Basecamp Explorer, and among its famous guests is US President Barack Obama, who visited Kenya as a junior Senator.
According to Ole Brent Froshaug, the pioneer partner of Basecamp, “the idea of starting a camp was mooted over a campfire.”
“Traditionally in all communities, people met around the campfire to discuss and exchange ideas. The campfire is the Basecamp logo because that is how everything started — meeting with the Maasai around the campfire.”
Froshaug recalls his time in Mara with the local people. “The idea from day one was to have an ethical and responsible business. Our intention was to have a small camp with the close co-operation of the community.”
“One cannot visit a place and not leave a footprint,” he says. “What we want to leave behind is a positive footprint not only on the place but also within ourselves.” Froshaug’s philosophical approach to business was shared by his friend Sven Wilhelmsen who financed the project.
Basecamp is located on the loop of the Talek river, smack in the middle of the wilderness and therefore at close contact with wildlife offering perfect views.
It features 15 spacious tents elevated on fixed structures and have thatched roofs. It is a nature lover’s paradise.
The first Basecamp Explorer was established in the Mara in 1983. “Today we have diverse projects spread across the globe — in India, the Arctic and in the Pyrenees in France,” says Lars Lindkvist, the executive chairman of Basecamp Foundation Kenya – Kenya safari
In the Indian state of Rajasthan, a beautiful three-century royal home has been restored in the rural village of Chandelao, 40 kilometers from Jodhpur, nicknamed the blue city.
Next door, the local Rajasthani women work on traditional embroidery and clothings similar to the Basecamp Mara women’s project “The Maasai Brand” where women earn 75 per cent of the income and the brand is recognised internationally as a “fair share.”
In France, Basecamp has put up the biggest private-owned solar panel park which supplies alternative energy to a 300-year-old farmhouse renovated into Basecamp’s eco-lodge.
In Dharamsala, the Indian refuge of the Dalai Lama and Tibetans in exile, the Basecamp does not have a lodge but started the House of Peace and Dialogue after dialogue with the Dalai Lama. It offers sanctum to the Tibetan orphans and refugee children where they not only live but also school.
Basecamp guests have a chance of meeting the Dalai Lama in the Buddhist outpost and trek on the Himalayas with the Tibetan guides.
The Arctic project is the most far-flung with the Basecamp stamp — the BC Trappers Hotel, BC Isford Radio, the BC Trappers station and the Basecamp Ship in the Ice.
“The ship in the ice is using the same concept used by early explorers sailing into the Arctic,” explains Lars.
Basecamp Ship in the Ice is the only hotel boat frozen in sea ice in the world where watching the midnight sun and a polar bear wandering by the boat are real possibilities.
In Kenya, the company also runs the Dorobo camp which caters for exclusive high-end campers. Then there is the Wilderness Camp in the newly created Naboisho Conservancy.
The camp is owned by the local Maasai community and Basecamp rents it. The revenue goes towards the costs of the Koiyaki Guide School, another brainchild of the regular “eco-storming” sessions that Basecamp staff has with its partners. It is the only education center in Kenya providing guide training focused on the Masai Mara.
The company also has a presence on the enchanting island of Lamu, where two dhows have been renovated into luxury houseboats. “What we’re trying to do is link histories together,” says Ole.
Tanzania tours | gorilla trekking Uganda | Rwanda gorilla tour
By Rupi Mangat; the East African Newspaper
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