USP Soothe your body while salving your eco conscience - have a massage by a local therapist overseen by baboons on the wooden veranda of a private cottage hidden in an olive and cedar forest. The location and the Masai touches that the therapist sprinkles into the treatments are its trump cards.

AMBIENCE The spa of sorts is attached to Saruni Camp, a luxury eco-lodge just outside the famous Kenyan game park. Treatments are accompanied by the background noise of the teaming bush with one ear listening out for the buffalo and lions that wander freely around the camp.

EXPERIENCE The Italian trained local therapist merges European beauty techniques with Masai knowledge. At the end of my facial I get a compress, using the leaves of an African relative of the sage bush soaked in water, and a good walloping from a back de-stresser, made from olmurmura seeds packed tightly into a cloth and attached to a wooden wand.

FOOD Learn how to grind up acacia bark to make a soup to aid digestion on a botanical trail through the bush. The lodge cuisine has a strong Italian flavour mixed with Kenyan fish and vegetables. Melanzane alla Parmigiana, and chilled carrot and ginger soup are on its favourites’ list.

IN CROWD Adventurous travellers from Western cities, and married silver surfer couples enjoying flown-the-nest freedom.

WALLET WATCH Prices at Saruni Camp start from $300 (about £168) a night per person. This includes full board, airport pick-ups, safari drives and a complimentary massage. Kenya Airways (www.kenya-airways.com) offer return flights from Heathrow to Nairobi from £396, including tax.

NEED TO KNOW Saruni Camp, Masai Mara, Kenya (www.sarunicamp.com)

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