Naboisho Camp is a Robert Redford profile of Kenya. It’s that daydream of ochre dirt, the still clouds and hazy sky above rugged jeeps, bouncing over thickets, down dry roads into vast stretches of green savannah, where acacia rise in black silhouette. You come ‘home’ to a heated pool, a sprawling tent, and an outdoor shower, where lizards scamper over your big fluffy towels and the conditioner actually detangles.

Naboisho is a conservancy of some 50,000 acres, attempting to hand you the Masai Mara as easily as it would hand you a glass of African Sauvignon Blanc. It hands you time among guides, not only on game drives, but in sharing meals and memories around a campfire. The food blends local moments (exceptional bean stew) with home comforts (hello delicious pancakes), and throughout there is this lovely thoughtfulness, from stunning coffee table books to hot water bottles tucked in beds for chilly toes.

The Naboisho Camp strives to build a bridge between conservation and those wishing to witness it; between tribal life and the modern world of Delta passengers with iPhones and agendas. They eschew reusable plastic, pump profits into local initiatives and remind you to never, ever open the jeep door.

“We will not shoot a lion, even if it is eating you,” our guide Lenkoko said one morning, as I sipped roasted arabica from an insulated, logo’d mug. Seems reasonable. Logical, even. There are millions of replacement tourists. The lion numbers are heartbreaking to hear.

Still, you see them. Kenya is famed for nearly obliterating poaching. Naboisho now is home to several thriving prides, some with as many as 20 cats living together. We saw cub after cub after cub. Is there such a thing as too many lion cubs in a single day? It turns out, no. No there is not. I ran a tight control group on this experiment.

No matter how many cats you come across, to witness any of these rare, endangered, nearly extinct predators in the wild is a truly crazy moment. It’s just so rare. At Naboisho, it’s often terrifyingly close.

This place is succeeding, not only with cats. Great organizations know that conservation extends to the balance of people and wildlife; preservation not only in packs and herds, but in humans as well. There are also 600 hundred land owners for Naboisho. There are supported villages and schools, with everyone and everything working to balance a share of African expanse.

Is it protected and equal, truly sustainable and all in harmony? Impossible for one to say, really. Likely impossible for one to fully manage. The effort is there, however, and you feel it in moments big and small.

Would I recommend Naboisho Camp, if one were headed to Kenya? A thousand times, yes. I hope one day to return, if only to hug Lenkoko and Joy once more. Guides really make the trip. Ours could not have been cooler.

Hopefully the leopards come out to play again, as well.