Kirawira is a reincarnation of an elegant Victorian era outpost, set against the imposing backdrop of the Western Serengeti. Here guests experience Africa's majesty as if they are among the first to travel these extraordinary lands. Set upon a hill with commanding views of endless savanna, the luxury tented camp beckons you to experience the soul of the African wilderness. Kirawira Camp is a member of the prestigious Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

The camp is built in the remote regions of the Grumeti River and is home to a wide variety of big game - lion, buffalo, cheetah, wildebeest, giraffe, baboon, gazelle. Guests at Kirawira Camp may be lucky enough to witness the magnificent spectacle of millions of wildebeest crossing the Grumeti River during their annual migration across the Serengeti plains.

From almost anywhere, there are spectacular vistas of the Serengeti stretching to the horizon. Kirawira's carefully landscaped grounds are in complete harmony with their natural surroundings.

Guests enjoy the highest standards of personalized attention, accommodation, meals and service. All beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), food, laundry and game drives in a customised fleet of Land Rovers are included as part of Kirawira Camp's unique offering.

Using the finest ingredients and served by the Camp's professional, friendly and attentive staff, meals are prepared according to guest recipes or cooked-to-order from house cuisine. The fine wines that accompany lunch and dinner are complimentary. Guests can also choose to have any or all of their meals served on the deck of their tent.

A large, beautifully-appointed, tent with raised wood flooring serves as the lounge and bar which is available for guest use throughout the day and evening. In the spirit of Kirawira's operating concept, guests can order, at any time, their preferred hot or cold beverage (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) or food snacks - all are provided on a complimentary basis. A light afternoon tea is available in the mid-afternoon.

Dining Tent:

Seating capacity of each dining tent (there are 2 dining tents): 25

While guests may arrange for their meals at any time of day, for guidance purposes meals are usually served during these hours:

Breakfast:	7:00 am to 10:00 am
Lunch:	12:30 pm to 2:30 pm
Dinner:	7:30 pm to 10:00 pm

Lounge/Bar Tent:

Seating capacity of Lounge / Bar Tent: 30 people plus 20 people on the terrace

The Serengeti is home to one of the biggest wildlife spectacles on earth - the annual migration of millions of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle. All around Kirawira roam the predators that have made the Western Serengeti legendary - lion, buffalo, jackal, cheetah, hyena, and the illusive leopard. This is also a superb area for chance viewings of giraffes, hippos, topis, gazelles and impalas. Game drives across the undisturbed open grasslands and immense skies of the Serengeti provide plenty of exciting, close-up wildlife encounters.

The camp has also created its own game viewing "blinds" on the banks of the Grumeti River, from which guests can view the mighty Grumeti Crocodiles. It is a spectacular scene when the wildebeest are crossing the River.

There is also an extraordinary variety of birdlife that can be viewed without ever having to leave the camp. Bush walks to observe the birds in their native habitats are led daily by the resident naturalists.

The lodge has six four-wheel drive landcruisers (both open and solid tops) which can seat 6 persons each. Game drives are scheduled daily at the clients convenience. A personal guide will drive you across the plains of Serengeti National Park and to the banks of the Grumeti River.

Everything about Kirawira Camp is unique. It's remoteness, in an area famous for the abundance and variety of wildlife, provides guests with a uniquely private game viewing experience. Game viewing is customized to guest requirements and preferred timings.

A unique feature of Kirawira, not currently available elsewhere in the Serengeti, is the "walking safari", usually undertaken by the Camp Manager (with armed rangers in attendance - just in case).This is a gentle stroll across the plains, usually lasting for two hours. As with other Kirawira facilities, this option is included in the tariff.

Picnic lunches under a shady acacia tree, sundowners high on a ridge, with Lake Victoria sometimes just visible as a backdrop, are also part of guest offerings.

The camps management can also arrange (for an extra charge) fishing trips on Lake Victoria and hot air balloon excursions over the Central Serengeti (both of these require an overnight stay at Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge.)

Serengeti National Park (3,646,500 acres/1,476,300 hectacres) lies between Ngorongoro and Lake Victoria and adjoins Kenya's Maasai Mara. Isolated lodges dot its northern, southern and western sectors, but the tourism center of the park is Seronera, with several lodges and camps, 197 miles (318 kilometers) west of Arusha. To the east and south vast open grasslands are punctuated with occasional kopjes (rocky outcrops), while to the west and north grasslands are interspersed with hills and open woodland and sliced by rivers. Near Seronera, yellow fever trees and palm thickets line the Seronera River and its hippo pools. This is a superb area for seeing predators such as lions, leopards, and cheetahs, along with giraffes, topis, bohor reedbucks, defassa waterbucks, buffalos and impalas. The kopjes host hyraxes, dwarf mongooses, and red-headed agamas. The open grassland to the east is home to large groups of Thomson's and Grant's gazelles, spotted hyenas, jackals, and such birds as the double-banded courser, yellow-throated sandgrouse, red-capped lark, Fischer's sparrow-lark, and capped wheatear.

As part of their famous clockwise migration, more than 1 million wildebeest, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of other herbivores, descend upon the short-grass plains of the southeastern Serengeti at the start of the rainy season around December. After calving in January and February, they scatter over the southern and central plains. By May the rain ends, the grass has been reduced to stubble, and the animals begin their long march to dry-season grazing grounds near the permanent waters of the Serengeti's northern woodlands and Kenya's Masai Mara. Reaching these destinations by July or so, they remain until October, when they head back to the southeastern Serengeti.

The seasonally saline Ndutu Lake, in southeastern Serengeti, sits in arid thorny acacia country with a lodge nearby. The area's inhabitants include Kirk dik-diks, giraffes, elephants, lions, pygmy falcons, gray-breasted spurfowls, Fischer's lovebirds and rufous-tailed weavers.

Alden, Estes, Schlitter, McBride, National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife © 1995 p. 132

© Serena Hotels Ltd / Choices Wild Limited, 2005.