Elephants, Giraffe, Zebra etc.

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After 5 weeks in Ethiopia, we finllay changed countries again and crossed the border into Kenya. As most people are aware, Kenya has been hurt by post election violence over the past several months. Up until a week ago we didn't even know if we'd be able to travel to Kenya. As things stand now the violence has calmed down and there are onging negotiations towards a power sharing agreement between the two major parties. Hopefully they're on the road to recovery. We have seen the problems that this has caused for the Kenyan tourism industry which has dropped by 90% since the elections.

At Samburu National Reserve, we had the opportunity to do three game drives and camp in the park with the animals. There are 3 types of animals that we can see here that we can't see elsewhere on our trip, and we got to see all three: the reticualted giraffe, the grevey's zebra, and the genenuk. Camping in the national park was something else. When the lights went out the sounds came alive. We heard mostly baboons, but also lions and other things only the imagination can make up.

The lodge at the reserve was a prime example of the current state of tourism in Kenya. At lunch time on our last day we hung out at the lodge to go through our hundreds of photos and found that aside from our group, the lodge was basically deserted. There was only one other group of four tourists that we saw sitting down for lunch. On all our game drives, the most vehicles we ever saw was 4 (including our own). It's pretty sad, but it is noticable how hard they are trying to please people and restore the faith in tourism. Aside from the isolated areas heard about in the news the majority of the country is safe, but they are all suffering from tourist withdrawl. One of the people on our trip traded a cardboard box and $3 for a souvenier (they're just that desperate).

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Photos

Reticulated Giraffe
Without a doubt the most beautifully patterned giraffe.

Gerenuk
Unique giraffe-like antelope that we'll only be able to see in Northern Kenya.

Grevey's Zebra
Endangerd species.

Empty lodge
Kenya's tourism has taken a huge dive since the post election violence.

Cheetahs
Stalking the DLTs, BLTs, BJTs, etc...

Secretary bird
Not sure why it's called that.

DLT
Deer-like thingy

Leopard tortise
One of the "little five"

BJT
Brown jumping thingy

Comments

[Sonya]

Wow! These sure beat the bear we saw this summer!

[Jo]

It was a bloody nice cardboard box to be fair...

[Emma]

just to let you know, it's called a secretary bird because their feathers were used as quills :) random fact hehe