Under the acacias at Fisherman’s Camp, Lake Naivasha

Fisherman’s Camp is on Moi South Lake Road, on the south shore of Lake Naivasha in Kenya’s Rift Valley. A 2021 Daily Nation travel piece called it one of Naivasha’s earliest campsites.

Lawns down to the lake

The campsite is a stretch of lawn under tall acacias that runs down to the water. Campers pitch among the trees, set tree-stump seats round a fire ring and light a fire as it gets dark. Black-and-white colobus monkeys live in the branches overhead.

Blue dome tents and a larger canvas tent pitched on a lawn under acacias, a camper crouching at one tent door, tree-stump seats and a ring of ash in the foreground

At the shoreline, a timber jetty runs out into the lake past dead trees standing in the water.

A timber jetty running out into the lake, small boats moored alongside and bare dead trees standing in the water

Bandas and Kasuku Cottage

For a roof and a bed, there are timber bandas on the lawns. Some have their own toilet and hot shower; bunk bandas take larger groups.

For more comfort, as the camp’s own website put it, there is Kasuku Cottage. It has two bedrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, its own bathroom and a spacious veranda, and sleeps six.

Timber bandas in a row beneath large acacias, picnic tables on the grass in front

The Fisherman’s Bar

The bar and restaurant look over the campground from a two-storey building of timber and whitewash, with a curved veranda at ground level. From the deck, the view runs out through fever trees to the lake.

The camp’s own description of the kitchen is plain: ugali and local steaks, a hearty fry-up, and a cold Tusker or a honey dawa as the sun goes down. Campers come over for dinner and a drink, then go back to their fires. Jan Fox of the Daily Nation, camping here in 2021, took dinner from the restaurant and sat by the campfire late into the night.

A table laid on the restaurant deck in low sun, yellow-barked fever trees and the lake beyond

Hippos at night, parks by day

After dark, hippos come out of the lake to graze the grass along the shore. They are dangerous out of the water, so watch them from a distance.

Two hippos grazing on the grass at the lake’s edge after dark, a thin wire across the foreground and lights on the far shore

By day, Hell’s Gate National Park, Mount Longonot, Crater Lake and Crescent Island are all close. The camp’s website offered guides and transport to each of them.

Plan a stay: https://fishermans-camp.netlify.app