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Published: November 4th 2021
Greetings from the Samburu Game Reserve! We have had a fantastic first game drive. Our day started quite early. After a very nice breakfast in our hotel, we headed out at 7:30 for the long drive to the Samburu Game Reserve. We had a couple of stops, the first for a short break just outside Karatina for a bathroom break and shopping at the “curio shop“ if we wanted, and a walk in the adjacent gardens. We didn’t think we would buy anything, but we ended up getting a few things (one a batik print which I’ll get framed and put in my home office). The so-called curio shop is a cooperative selling many different locally made handicrafts.
The drive from Nairobi to Samburu was very bumpy! There was a lot of roadwork going on, plus there are very frequent speed bumps along the way so our driver Stanley would slow down to a certain extent and we hung on as we thumped over the speed bumps. We were sitting in the back of the jeep, and I think it was likely a bit worse back there. The funny thing is I think our fitbits registered a step for every
bump, because it gave me over 30,000 steps today! In reality I probably got maybe 5000.
The landscape varied considerably throughout the drive. It took awhile to get out of the sprawl of Nairobi (I have to say what we saw of the city was not very attractive). There were lots of concrete apartment blocks, and small shopping areas with a series of very small shops, some just little shacks really. After we left the city the scenery became much more green and lush. Here they grow pineapple and other fruit including mango, and there are many eucalyptus trees. The jacaranda trees, which we‘ve seen all over, are very beautiful with purple flowers.
There was a lot of road building going on, and the highway was two lanes the whole time, so there was lots of overtaking and squeaking by other vehicles with very little room to spare! There were lots of roadside fruit stands, and stands selling bags of rice (it’s a big rice growing area too). After our stop at Karatina the scenery became more arid and flatter, with lots of cattle and goats grazing along the side of the road (there was a close call
Roadside scenes
On the drive from Nairobi to Samburuwith a few goats crossing the road right in front of us, thankfully Stanley managed to avoid them). We stopped at Nanuki (and we also crossed the equator at this point), to fill up gas and so Susan and I could get a SIM card for our phones. It was quite the process getting the SIM cards, but we successfully got them so now don’t have to worry about always being on wifi. (There is wifi at our camp now, but only in the lobby, so I’m using my cell phone hotspot for the ipad so I can do the blog). The landscape became greener and hillier once again, and the distant Mount Kenya was in the clouds (apparently we will be able to see it from one of our camps). We also passed through fields of yellow canola.
We were excited to finally enter the Samburu Game Reserve, although it was a very bumpy drive on dirt roads from the entry to the park to our camp, Ashnil Samburu Camp. We arrived a bit later than expected, at 2:30 pm, and went straight to lunch. I had a salad and a very tasty Indian vegetarian meal, along with
On the road
Construction of a new road a White Cap beer (which I think I like better than Tusker). It is quite a bit hotter here than it was in Nairobi, and after our dusty long drive, I really appreciated the beer. We spent a few minutes checking out our tent (it is a permanent tented camp, with a big main area and a nice bathroom area, plus a balcony).
We headed out on our first game drive at 4 pm. It wasn‘t very long before the cry went out “there’s an elephant!” OMG!! It was so exciting to see an elephant in the wild. This was the first of many elephants we saw as the reserve has a very healthy population of elephants. We saw adult elephants, Moms with babies, young and older males. It was very thrilling. Catching our first site of a reticulated giraffe was also pretty unbelievable. The reserve is home to the reticulated giraffe, not the Rothschild’s giraffe, as we saw yesterday at the Giraffe Centre. They have quite different markings (for example the markings on the Rothschild’s giraffe only go down to the knee, and the rest of the leg is white - so-called white socks) and the Rothschild’s giraffe
is not indigenous to Kenya at all, coming from Uganda. The Rothschild family funded the transport of a number of these giraffes when their habitat was lost. They used to migrate but once land was fenced in, could no longer. They are the most endangered species of giraffe. Anyway, the giraffe in the reserve is the reticulated giraffe, which is larger than the Rothschild giraffe. It is such a majestic animal to see, gliding along, feeding on acacia trees.
We were also thrilled to see many Grevy’s zebras. They are the most endangered of the zebra species, but there were quite a few in the reserve. It is so different to see these animals in the wild, where they are supposed to be, rather than in zoos. I really dislike zoos. Here we were privileged to see these amazing animals in their natural habitat.
We also saw lots of other interesting animals including baboons, impalas, oryxs, dik-diks (they are very small and very cute), gerenuks, water bucks, and warthogs. We also spotted various birds including the helmeted guinea fowl, vulturine guinea fowl, grey headed kingfisher, and the superb starling, among others.
We drove back to our camp
as it grew dark, and shared a quick beer, then headed to our tent where I downloaded some of my photos from the camera for the blog. We went for a fairly quick, late dinner (I had a white wine and a very nice vegetarian ratatouille). I’ll be glad to finish the blog as I’m tired and we have another early morning tomorrow, with both a morning and an afternoon game drive. Susan got lots of great photos on her camera, but I’m too tired to add them tonight. I will either add them to tomorrow’s entry, or at some point after we get home, add more photos then.
Anyway, I will sign off now, as I listen to the crickets outside our tent. Good night from Africa! ?.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Good Night Africa
We have not been to Kenya yet but we've been on Safari in other countries. It is amazing to enjoy these animals in the wild. Thanks for sharing your trip.