ol Donyo Lodge sits on the southwestern flank of the Chyulu Hills, within the 275,000-acre Mbirikani Group Ranch, a tract of land owned by 4,000 Maasai and managed in partnership with the lodge for conservation and community benefit.
The lodge was originally built in 1987 by bush pilot and conservationist Richard Bonham and rebuilt in 2008 into the property that operates today. It sits on private land between Amboseli and Tsavo West National Parks, with views of Kilimanjaro across the savanna from every suite.
ol Donyo is operated by Great Plains Conservation, the company founded by National Geographic filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert, and is one of only three Relais and Chateaux properties in Kenya.
The lodge has played a direct role in Kenya’s black rhino recovery, with the last wild roaming black rhino population in the country hiding in the dense thickets of the Chyulu Hills, closely guarded by rangers supported in part by lodge revenue. The Maasailand Preservation Trust, founded by Richard Bonham in the 1980s and now part of the Big Life Foundation, grew directly out of work that began on this ranch.
