Samburu National Reserve is located in the Rift Valley alongside the Ewaso Nyiro River and covers an area of 165km and hosts a large variety of wildlife.
Our Jeep mates for the entire trip were Lance, Sabrina, and Tristan from Denton Texas and Karen from California. We had an awesome time with them, and the jokes and tee shirt ideas were a hoot to come up with. We are blessed to have met them and everyone else in our tour group.
We had a mini-game drive on the way to the camp, just a teaser for what was yet to come.
After arriving at the beautiful Samburu Intrepids camp we had a nice lunch and headed out on our first safari. The sheer number of each species that we saw was just unbelievable. Although the pictures are beautiful, it does not do it justice. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we are in Africa and not on a game drive at Busch Gardens or Animal Kingdom. We were all extremely excited to see the animals.
Our safari driver Yusuf was excellent and was also the main group manager from Gate 1. He did an excellent job spotting all the animals. Tristan did an excellent job spotting them as well, young eyes come in handy 😊. All of the Safari drivers in the parks communicate with each other over a walkie talkie and since they speak in Swahili we had no idea what they were saying. After getting off the radio he would jokingly say he smells something ahead. It was his way of telling us that one of the other drivers found something big.
As with all the game drives, each one is different. Nature decides what you get to see.
Here is a collection of the animals that we saw on our first game drive in the afternoon.
Reticulated Giraffe, one of three types found in Kenya
Gerenuk (giraffe gazelle)
Grants Gazelle
Impala
Waterbuck
And of course the majestic Elephant. Big 5 #1….check.
Weaver Bird Nests, we saw these everywhere we went. They build their openings from the bottom in an attempt to keep out the snakes.
Hornbill
Red and Yellow Barbet
Francoline
King’s Crown
Great post 🙂