We flew from Amboseli to Samburu with a boring stop in Wilson airport. Kevin got to sit in the copilot seat and had a blast. Once we landed, it was a long, bumpy ride back to camp. To get to the camp itself, the jeep had to climb a steep rock slab. The lodge was perched on a tall stone cliff and had spectacular views of the the valley below and the mountains on either side. It is the only lodge in the reserve and thus was very private. The rooms were spacious and very well positioned so that you could not see your neighbors. This made for amazing views from the private decks and outdoor showers. (There were indoor showers too, of course. :-) )
We had two guides, Simon and Sambara, who are native Samburu which is the local tribe that is closely related to the Masai. Simon and Sambara are amazing professional spotters and navigators. Here are a few stories about their skills. One time we were driving down a bouncy dirt road at about 25 miles an hour and they put on the brakes and yelled "bush baby" and pointed into the trees. It took all of us about 10 minutes with binoculars to spot these two, cute, 3-inch tall teddy bear-like creatures that look like Mort from the movie Madagascar. I have no idea how these guys spotted them from a bouncing jeep.
Another time we were driving around near the river and they stopped the jeep and pointed to the ground and said "Lion tracks. Very fresh. See how there's no dust in the prints from the other jeeps?" So then the two of them begin driving around very slowly and looking at the ground on either side of the jeep, occasionally backing up or circling. After about 10 minutes of this (I was starting to loose faith), one of them shouted "lions" and backed our jeep up next to a bush where three lionesses were talking a late morning cat nap. They barely twitched when we moved in despite the fact that the back of the truck was about 10 feet from them. It was amazing to see these big cats that close. Their size and power was obvious. Just when we thought we were going to leave, Sambara backed the truck up even closer to about 6 feet. Kevin was glad that he was not sitting in the back row closest to the lions. These guys were amazing trackers. They found these lions before all of the other trucks and guides spotted them.
Simon and Sambara taught us about the "Samburu Special Five" which are animals found only in this region. The animals are the reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra, Somali ostrich, Beisa oryx and the long-necked antelope, the gerenuk. We saw them all and have posted pictures of them. The area is also known for leopards, but we barely saw one. They are quite shy and elusive.
It was awesome to visit this area and the wildlife and geography were quite different than Amboseli. Samburu looks like New Mexico with red colored sand and lots of scrub brush. This made spotting animals more challenging and we were thankful for our great guides. We thoroughly enjoyed our two days there and would have liked to stay at least a day longer, especially given how awesome our lodge was. We would definitely recommend the Saruni Lodge to anyone.
We left Samburu for the Masai Mara, our third and final game park.
Samburu National Reserve
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Samburu National Reserve, Kenya
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2025-02-08