About us
Fifteen years of the same roads
How Elleme started
Elleme Africa Safaris was registered in Arusha by two guides who had spent the previous decade driving other companies’ vehicles. The idea was narrow: keep the fleet in-house, keep the guiding in-house, and let the person who plans a trip be answerable for how it goes.
We have stayed small on purpose — a compact, in-house fleet and guide team, not a franchise. That ceiling means we turn down work in peak season rather than subcontract it to someone we have not met.
Most enquiries now arrive through a previous guest. It is a slower way to grow and the only one we have wanted.
The team
The people you will actually meet
Portrait of a guide
Emanuel Laizer
Founder and head guide
Twenty-two years guiding the northern circuit. Knows the Seronera leopards by sight and by territory.
Portrait, office
Grace Mollel
Founder and operations
Runs logistics, camps and permits. If your flight shifts at midnight, Grace already knows.
Portrait on Kilimanjaro
Josephat Kimaro
Mountain manager
Ninety-one Kilimanjaro summits. Sets our porter weights, wages and acclimatisation profiles.
Portrait at a desk
Neema Sanare
Safari designer
Writes most of the itineraries you will read here, and answers the emails they generate.
Our vehicles
Eleven Land Cruisers, all ours
Extended 4x7 Toyota Land Cruisers, serviced in our own workshop between departures. Every vehicle has a roof hatch that opens fully, a fridge, charging points at each seat, binoculars, a reference library and a radio linked to the other guides in the park.
How we work
Commitments, not slogans
One quote, all in
Park fees, camps, flights, fuel and guiding in a single number. Nothing appears later.
Salaried guides
Our guides are employed year-round, not hired per trip. Fair pay is the reason they stay for a decade.
Direct camp bookings
We contract camps ourselves rather than through a wholesaler, so there is no commission layer in your price.
Honest seasons
If your dates are wrong for what you want to see, we will say so and propose a change.
Insured mountain crews
Every porter is insured, weighed within KPAP limits, and paid a fixed share of each climb.
Small by choice
We cap departures rather than subcontract. In August that means saying no, which we would rather do than disappoint.
Begin your journey
Come and see for yourself
Send us a paragraph about the trip you have in mind. A guide, not a salesperson, will reply.
