We were 15 minutes from camp when our guide started to panic.
The sun-drenched ride from the airstrip had been a welcome respite from the long journey to East Africa. Our vehicle had been making leisurely stops to observe hyena, zebra, and wildebeest, but in a matter of minutes the temperature dropped and the skies turned pitch dark. We zoomed down empty roads back to camp, knowing that there would be more time for animals later. As we pulled up to camp, a deluge of biblical proportions began. Had we been ten seconds faster we would have missed it, but sometimes the rains down in Africa are half the fun.
The camp’s staff lined up to greet us with warm smiles and, thankfully, plenty of large umbrellas. “When it rains, this is a blessing,” said our guide. Working around the elements is all in a day’s work.
That’s the thing about the Serengeti—conditions can change on short notice. Luckily at Usawa Serengeti, the latest camp from respected operator Wilderness and the company’s first in Tanzania, adaptability is the name of the game. As opposed to permanent safari set-ups, Usawa is a mobile camp concept: in a matter of days, it can be broken down and transported to any one of Wilderness’ nine reserved campsites within Serengeti National Park. So when the migrations move, the camp moves.
Usawa, which opened this past July, marks a full-circle moment for Wilderness, which began as a humble operation of mobile camps in the Okavango Delta forty years ago. Today, they are best known for their luxurious permanent camps, including the architectural wonders of Jao in Botswana and Bisate Lodge in Rwanda. And while the company today has a massive footprint across Southern Africa, they’ve been waiting for the right moment to expand their sustainable tourism concept into Tanzania.
It took Wilderness years of searching to figure out how to properly enter the crowded Serengeti safari market, but the company finally found the right partner in Jean Du Plessis—a bush guide, safari entrepreneur, and 30-year veteran of the Serengeti. Last year, Wilderness acquired Du Plessis’s company Wayo Africa, a collection of small and immersive camps in the Serengeti’s most remote locations. As part of that deal, he joined Wilderness as Managing Director to spearhead the company’s efforts in Tanzania.
Du Plessis’s deep knowledge of the park and hard-earned goodwill with its officials provide Usawa with several advantages, the most important of which is location. Whereas many other camps sit in clusters elsewhere in the park—and some competitors aren’t even inside the park itself—Usawa enjoys the advantage of especially pristine campsites with unique access to less-congested parts of the Serengeti. You could go a week here and hardly see another tourist. “Here,” Du Plessis says, “you simply have to know where to go.”
For visitors, this singularity makes a huge difference. While the Serengeti might be one of Africa’s most-visited parks, Usawa is uniquely situated to offer a deeper exploration. I could count on one hand the number of competitor vehicles we passed on the road during the trip. We went on walking safaris where idyllic landscapes unfurled for miles and miles in every direction. And despite the camp’s apparent remoteness, we were just a relatively short ride away from the park’s main viewing spots, as well as the liftoff site for a sunrise hot air balloon ride with Serengeti Balloon Safaris.
Of course, there were the game drives. The caliber of wildlife sightings makes the Serengeti one of the best safari destinations in Africa, and our sightings were made that much more extraordinary by not having to share them: hyenas in the grass, bellies so full from a recent kill that they were barely able to move; a family of lions luxuriating under an acacia tree; herds of zebra that stretched to the horizon. But as I came to understand, the greatest thrill of Usawa wasn’t the flashy, splashy sightings (of which there were plenty). It was the moments of quiet relaxation in camp and feeling at one with the surroundings.
Each tent comes with all the creature comforts—flush toilets, hot-water showers, spacious vanities, and, yes, even WiFi—but Usawa’s defining characteristic is how connected it feels to the landscape. Permanent safari camps are typically built on platforms or with solid exterior walls that provide a sense of being closed-off from the elements, but here, your tent flaps undulate with the afternoon breeze and you’ll wake up each morning to birdsong greeting the sunrise. Yes, this is still a comfortable and luxurious way to see the Serengeti—but it’s not a coincidence the camp’s name derives from the Swahili for “balance.”
