Stephen Cook meets Masai warriors and wild animals in an eco-friendly camp.

As we came round a bend, the headlights suddenly lit up the golden-brown colours of a giraffe crossing the track in front of us with its liquid, high-shouldered gait. Another followed, then a zebra, anxiously flicking its tail: the driver cut the engine, and we watched in silence as they disappeared into the scrubby trees.

A few minutes later, we arrived in a clearing under tall acacias to find another unforgettable tableau of the Kenyan bush - a huge camp fire with four Masai standing motionless behind it in their blood-red robes, their skin and the blades of their spears catching the flickering light.

This was our first night at Porini Camp, which provided us with a succession of indelibly strong tastes of life in the wild, starting when two of the Masai led us a little way from the tents to point out a huge python, as big as a tractor tyre, coiled at the top of a tree, soaking up the sun while digesting something large.

Then there was a chilly dawn when we saw silver-backed jackals slouching across a bare hillside as the clouds peeled away from the impossibly high and snowy dome of Kilimanjaro; a day when we watched impala wandering through the camp and monkeys raiding the sunflower seeds put out for the birds; an evening when we sat on a dusty hill drinking cold Tusker beer as the sun slipped away through layers of purple and scarlet; and a night when we lay in our tent and listened with a shiver to the strange groaning sounds of prowling lions.

Animals we saw near the camp included some rare and shy species like gerenuk, lesser kudu, servals cats, antbears and bushbabies. But the safari includes a trip to nearby Amboseli National Park for guaranteed sightings of elephant, lion and buffalo which may move to Eselenkei in greater numbers when the message spreads that they're left in peace there.

Porini means "in the wild" in Swahili, and it would be hard to get much closer than this to the untamed African bush, with its harsh beauty. It's not in a game park, it's not on a normal tourist route, there's certainly no fence around it, and the Maasai staff haven't been to hotel management colleges.

Instead it's a new venture which could demonstrate a further way of mitigating one of Kenya's most pressing problems - the growing conflict between wildlife and the demands of a booming human population for farmland and grazing. It's also an example of low-impact "eco-tourism": the power comes from solar panels and the whole place could be dismantled in a couple of days, leaving hardly a trace.

The camp is in a "conservation area" of about 30 square miles which has been leased from the Masai. The local Kisonko clan receives the money from the lease and an entry fee for every visitor.

In return, they keep their cattle out of the conservation area, where new boreholes have been dug to attract wild animals. The idea is to give the Masai a tangible reason to treat wildlife as a resource rather than a competitor, reduce their cattle numbers, and strike a better balance between their traditional nomadic life and the inevitable pressures of the modern world - including paid employment.

One of the startling aspects of the camp is that the staff are all young Masai whose role in most game lodges would be dancing for tourists and hanging around the dining room looking decorative. Mpapa is the supervisor and waiter, Matasha and Patai are tent stewards, and Seningo the driver. Lelion, much older, is night watchman.

These men have spent their lives until now looking after cattle, and this is their first paid work: it's like something from the theatre of the absurd being served bananas and custard by a half-naked warrior, and if your eyes meet you both burst out laughing.

The Eselenkei Conservation Area is on Maasai tribal land in the shadow of snow-topped Kilimanjaro, a few miles north of Amboseli National Park. Unlike many safari areas in Kenya, the animals here are still very wild as the area is relatively unvisited. Tourist numbers are limited to eight a day to minimise the impact on the environment. Animals sighted within the Conservation Area include elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah and other cats, Thomson's and Grant's gazelles, gerenuk, impala, oryx, lesser kudu, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, striped hyena, bat-eared fox, and ostrich. Birds of prey are also prolific. The range of animals is all the more amazing considering that the Maasai and wildlife have been at loggerheads in recent years. In 1984, the Maasai were evicted from their traditional lands in Amboseli to make way for conservation and safari tourism. The Maasai began killing animals thinking that it would stop the tourists coming and they would get their land back. A Kenyan organisation, Porini Ecotourism (in association with British tour operator Tropical Places), started working with the Maasai to find a solution. The Maasai tribal lands have been set aside as a private reserve for wildlife and the Maasai are now receiving a rent for the lease of the land from the tour operator plus an entry fee for each tourist visitor. They also benefit from employment as game scouts, road builders and workers at the luxury safari lodges. Profits are used for maintenance of boreholes, animal husbandry and education for the Maasai. Tourism is starting to work for, not against, them. . Tropical Places (0800 0185256) and www.porini.com. Three nights, £299 plus flights. The Eselenkei Safari can also be combined with a stay at a Mombasa beach hotel.