I’m here on a girls’ safari with Inés Sastre, the Spanish actress and Lancôme model, who comes to Africa whenever she has the time. Sastre’s love affair with Kenya began in 1994, when she came for a photo shoot; since then she has travelled the country extensively by plane, Jeep and motorbike.

This time she’s taking me with her, to stay with friends in Naivasha and near Mount Kenya. The Cunningham-Reids live luxuriously, surrounded by beauty as far as the eye can see. But like many white landowners in Kenya, whether descendants of the hedonistic Happy Valley set or of those hardy pioneers who established the colony for the Crown, their focus today seems to be conservation and helping local communities, rather than idle pleasure.

By incorporating their estates into nature reserves, and then renting out wildlife lodges or their homes to tourists, landowners like the Cunningham-Reids are effectively helping to protect what’s left of Kenya’s wonderful wildlife.

Other lodges are constructed, owned and managed by local tribes. These also enhance wildlife protection, as well as giving local communities a solid economic independence. Hippo Point, with 600 acres of land idyllically sited by two lakes, has been the home of the Cunningham-Reids since the late Eighties.

Formerly belonging to Lord Delamere, the founding father of colonial Kenya, it was later sold to an Englishman called Stephen Carnelli, who built an exquisite mock Elizabethan mansion here in 1933 – so convincing that you might almost be back in Blighty, until a giraffe passes in front of the rose garden. The few houses on the lake shore are all vestiges of the colonial era, including the famous Djinn Palace, a vast, white Moorish extravaganza built in the Twenties, which belonged to Lord Erroll (whose unsolved murder in 1941 exposed the White Mischief set’s scandalous goings-on).

Kenya has weaved its spell on Michael Cunningham-Reid as it did on his stepfather, Lord Delamere. First he farmed, then he ran a small hotel with his German wife, Dodo. And at Hippo Point, the Cunningham-Reids lovingly restored the manor house, before building the spectacular Tower. “Everyone thought I was absolutely mad,” Dodo recalls. “But I wanted to create something that would enhance nature and be left for posterity.”

Everyone at Hippo Point is discreet about former guests, but a browse through the guest-book reveals that Lauren Hutton “loves it here” and Angelina Jolie stayed during the African stint of the latest Tomb Raider film. But our particular house party won’t be taking it easy.

Inés Sastre, clad in khaki shorts and Timberland boots, is relishing the idea of a steep three-hour climb up Mount Longonot. When we reach the top, we find ourselves on the rim of a huge crater so steep you feel you might just topple over. In the afternoon we rest by the pool, near the manor house. From there it’s a ten-minute walk back to the Tower – undertaken with care, so as not to cross paths with any hippos that might be wandering over to Lake Oloiden. We watch the sun go down seated on wicker chairs on the terrace of our “treehouse”, with binoculars glued to our eyes.

The next day we fly out to the foot of Mount Kenya, once again escaping the main tourist routes by staying at Borana Lodge, another wildlife sanctuary and also a working ranch, with 2,000 head of cattle. Borana is on the edge of the Laikipia plateau, just 17 miles north of the Equator and 6,500ft above sea level. It’s a totally different face of Africa: wilder, more stark, not as lush as Naivasha.

The ranch spreads over 35,000 acres, and there are six cottages for paying guests. The Dyer family, who own Borana, are heavily involved in conservation. Among the four adult sons, Michael is part of the Laikipia Wildlife Forum, established in 1992 to conserve the Ewaso ecosystem and manage its natural resources. His brother Francis is a wildlife manager at the Lewa Conservancy, a haven for black and white rhino. There’s also a tannery and leather workshop that employs local disabled people at Borana.

It’s almost dusk when we arrive, after a fabulous drive through the bush from “Borana airport” – a landing strip in the middle of nowhere. The main sitting room is wonderul: furnished with gigantic pieces carved from fossilised tree trunks, and with a huge drop of forest and rock below and beyond. Supper is early, followed by drinks around the colossal fireplace, with a couple of charming 18-year-old English boys, just thrilled to find themselves in the company of a supermodel.

They’ve been helping local Masai build themselves a road. We get up at the crack of dawn, not to go out on a ranch run with Michael Dyer, but for a photographic safari, taking the easy option: a Jeep, rather than a bicycle or a horse.

Our five days in Africa are almost over, but it seems as though we’ve been away longer. The extraordinary sense of freedom we’ve experienced is hard to convey. No matter how chic and luxurious commercial lodges in Kenya may be, there’s much to be gained from keeping off the beaten track – with a little help from the locals. Doing it their way, in their homes, and experiencing that proximity to nature... now that’s genuine luxury. n

NEED TO KNOW

Tim Best Travel (www.timbesttravel.com) offers a package from £2,455 per person, including flights, transfers, three nights at Hippo Point and three nights at Borana on a full-board basis, including activities. For more information, visit www.hippo-pointkenya.com and www.borana.co.ke

Times recommends

• Travel advice: what to do if your flight is disrupted
• Top 10 unmissable events in 2010
• Seven spa breaks for January