Star Beds by Rob Penn

A relatively new lodge on a ranch at the edge of the Laikipia plateau, north of Mount Kenya. The ranch ­ half the size of the Maasai Mara - contains savannah grassland, forest and a stretch of the Ewaso Ngiro River flowing from Laikipia north through the Samburu reserve to the Lorien Swamp. Bird and wildlife populations are strong and growing.

Loisaba is run by a team of young, go-ahead white Kenyans with a keen vision for the future of safaris. Peter Sylvester is the ranch manager: "Being on safari is not about designer interiors, it is about the bush. We want to get people out there."

The Star Beds, Loisaba's solution to finding comfort in the wild, are bespoke wooden platforms built craftily into boulders on a hillside overlooking a lake. Each platform is reached by a ladder and has a large double bed, loo and camp shower that runs with warm water. The thatched roofs only partly cover the platforms and the beds, on sturdy wheels, can be maneuvered so you slumber sweetly under the African night.

After cocktails and an excellent three-course dinner with the other guests, I retired with a decent glass of scotch to my own isolated platform. There, I lay gazing out over miles of wilderness, under the panoply of stars listening to the cicadas and the visceral moan of a lion. Gushing a little, I wrote in my diary: "Amazing - this is a truly authentic bush experience."

The plan is to build more Star Beds in remote locations owned by local communities, thereby bringing tourist revenue direct to them. The locations will be a day's walk, camel trek or horse ride apart, forming a network rather like Alpine huts. An excellent idea and, when the network is operational, one that will make for a superb wilderness adventure. In the meantime, for anyone happy to surrender a little comfort for exhilaration, get 'out there'.