The Bastard Family

Piers and Hilary Bastard co-founded Sarara Camp in 1997 as an eco-lodge with a mandate to help this new conservancy develop high end tourism and a strong revenue base for the benefit of communities living here. Wholly owned by the community, Sarara has been a success story and is a flagship community driven conservation initiative.

Jeremy and Katie took over from Piers and Hilary in 2010 and co-founded the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in 2016, along with the Sarara Initiative. In order to maintain sustainability for community owned conservation areas, this programme has seen the construction of the community owned Sarara Tree and the Samburu Montessori school amongst many other projects.

Katie was born in Sri Lanka, before moving to Kenya at a very early age. Her enthusiasm and warmth, coupled with her eye for detail, ensures that every guest feels completely at home at Sarara. She trained as a chef at the Pru Leath’s culinary school in London, and this is evident in the wonderful camp food. She has founded several community projects, including the Melako feather project and the Sarara beading project, working very closely with the Samburu and Rendille people of the north. Alongside her passion for the outdoors Katie has guided professional photographic, horse riding and walking safaris all over East Africa. Her hobbies include horse riding, kite-surfing, photography and fly fishing.

Jeremy, a fourth generation Kenyan, holds a deep enthusiasm and passion for Africa and the natural world. He has been guiding walking, mobile luxury camping, photographic and fishing safaris all over East Africa for more than ten years. He is currently involved in several wildlife and community conservation initiatives in the surrounding northern frontier area. He has a BSc. in Environmental and Geographical Science and Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town and holds a Kenya Professional Guides Association membership and guiding qualification.

Having grown up in the Kenyan bush and in the safari business he has an insightful and in depth knowledge of its diverse environments. In his spare time Jeremy is a keen fly fisherman, photographer, watercolour artist and outdoorsman. He is also a certified kite-surfing and windsurfing instructor.

Jeremy and Katie were married in May 2015 at Sarara and now have two children, Saba and Lokwe who are following in the same footsteps as Jeremy calling Sarara their home.

Robert Lemaiyan started at Sarara over twelve years ago. He was awarded a bursary through the Sarara Namunyak Education Programme, and upon completion of his schooling he started work at Sarara as a general worker. He quickly worked his way up the ladder, from a room steward to bartender and waiter. He then trained as a guide and soon earned a great reputation across the country as being one of the best. Robert is now the Lodge host and manager. His intimate knowledge of the Samburu culture, alongside his passion for teaching and conservation, is something that all guests should experience.