The how’s and why’s of Luxury Mobile Camping

For those who think they know what camping involves, but have not been luxury mobile camping in East Africa, then you would do best to throw out all currently conceived ideas and build a whole new picture! Luxury mobile camping in our part of the world bears little resemblance to that practiced by our cousins in the more developed world! Let us try and paint a simple picture…

The day before we arrive in the area in which we are to camp a truck arrives, carrying what is essentially a luxury mobile hotel and its staff. Within just a few hours they sympathetically transform a pristine piece of private wilderness, complete with good shade and a great view, into a luxury tented camp. Three or four days later, just hours after we have departed for our next destination, the truck pulls out once again, leaving no evidence that we were ever there but a cold fire circle.

Staying in such a camp is the real safari deal - with comforts. The best thing about it is that it is private. Except for our camp staff we are alone in the wilderness, and can savour the isolation, privacy and independence that this situation offers. Nowhere else can you get such a sense of Africa and its sounds, smells and rhythms as when camping, and by staying in the luxury mobile camp you can experience it in true style.

A luxury mobile camp consists only of the essentials of comfortable life – though not the bare essentials I hasten to add. The sleeping tents are large and airy, perhaps 20 foot long and 10 foot wide, with the roof rising from 6 foot high at the sides to 10 foot high at the apex. While the tents are entirely mosquito proof, they have large windows all around, and, should you desire, the entire front of the tents open up like stage curtains on to the verandah and the scenery beyond.

Within the tent the bedroom is around 12 foot long, and boasts comfortable beds that can be set up either as twins or doubles, and are topped with linen, duvets and pillows. Behind the bedroom, and en suite, are a dressing and washbasin area, a toilet cubicle, and shower cubicle. Illumination is supplied by rechargeable electric lights inside the tent, and by hurricane lamps on the verandah, where there are also safari chairs.

The rest of the camp includes a large dining or “mess” tent, as well as a fully stocked complimentary bar tent and library, and most important of all, the campfire.

As this luxury camp is entirely mobile, the best way to build an itinerary is to alternate between camping and staying at small luxury lodges - affectively leap-frogging your way across the country. Thus, when you move on to a lodge, the crew dismantle the camp, transport it several hundred rugged miles, and resurrect your tent in a new and different part of Africa, ready for your return “home”. As you arrive from two or three days away it will be to a staff of well-known faces and familiar equipment, even if the scenery and animals have changed.

Moving between the luxury mobile camp and various luxury lodges during a safari can be achieved either by road or by air, depending on distances involved and what there is to see along the way. Sometimes the scenery and culture en route is well worth the time taken to drive though it, and at other times it makes more sense to fly by private light aircraft in order to get to the next destination quickly and comfortably, and often with a spectacular aerial view.