Toto, Totos and the origin of the PJ Safari

Bear with me for a minute as we wing our way back to December 2021. Angama had just signed a lease with the Big Life Foundation to build a new lodge in a beautiful Sanctuary, and I was desperate to show my young family where Mummy would be spending all her time. Our daughter was 2.5 years old, and my son was 4 years old – little people on another big adventure.  

We rented a pop-top Safari vehicle in Nairobi, roped in Nicky and some friends, and set off down to Amboseli for two days of exploring Kimana Sanctuary and Amboseli National Park, and mapping out where the lodge would one day stand (where it is today). We self-catered in an old house, which still stands on Kimana Sanctuary, and sat about at night over glasses of red wine, dreaming of what the lodge and the Sanctuary would become.  

The only frustration of the trip was that by our last night, the children had not seen Kilimanjaro. She was being her shiest self; shrouded in clouds by day, and by night, when you could make out her magnificent silhouette by moonlight, my babies were fast asleep after busy days on safari under the sun.  

We were leaving after breakfast for the Mara, and Nicky suggested we get up at sunrise, as, unlike most women, Kili shows her best self, first thing in the morning, and then go on one last drive in the Sanctuary to catch her before she hides again. We wanted to show our children the continent's highest mountain. 

As a mum of young children, the thought of getting them up early, through the fuss of dressing, just for a 20-minute bumble to see a mountain already felt exhausting, so I decided that they would just have to come dressed in their PJs. With that, Nicky had a brilliant idea, 'Why don’t we all go in our PJs? It’s such a short drive. Why all the fuss, when we can all just have fun!'  

And so, the PJ Safari was born. As was its soundtrack. We grabbed Billo Bear and Moy the Sock Monkey (we still don’t move without them, 5 years later), drove out onto Kimana Sanctuary, all in various forms of sleepwear – no judgement – and in the presence of Kili on her best behaviour, we danced and sang to Toto’s “Africa” – with great gusto and emphasis on the line “As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti” (not quite factually correct, but in 1982, poetic license reigned).  

Fast forward four years, the lodge that we dreamed of is built, Kimana Sanctuary is thriving with cubs from lions and cheetahs, there is not a pop-top safari vehicle in sight, and Kili still towers above us. And the PJ Safari? Well, it became a signature Angama Amboseli experience for guests – young and old alike – complete with custom Angama Amboseli PJs and the soundtrack that still makes you bless the rains down in Africa.