Nairobi, Feb. 4 -- It is midnight in Samburu. I lie on a star bed set deep in the wilderness. No walls; just a bed surrounded by rocks, acacia trees and mountains, wind moving through.

Above me, almost every inch of the sky is draped in stars, too bright perhaps.

In Samburu, the skies are clear. The nights, although hot, get utterly dark. In this pitch blackness, clean air, you feel like the world has stopped. Unlike the day, when hundreds of birds roam, some chirping, others strange and cooing, at night, there is only silence; deep silence.

It is these very dark night skies and a blanket of stars that are increasingly attracting a new kind of tourists to Samburu: stargazers, some international, a few Kenyans. The star bed is set on a ...