Samburu National Park

From Ol Pejeta we traveled further north to Samburu National park. Samburu is in a fairly arid region. You are as likely to see a herd of Camels as a herd of Cows (though I’m not sure what they do with the Camels). Samburu is home to a number of species that are either rare or nonexistent in parks to the south. You can find Reticulated Giraffe here in good numbers. These Giraffe have a particularly handsome pattern. They look like what you think a Giraffe should look like. Also present are Grevy’s Zebra, an endangered species. They have finer stripes, are larger, have bigger ears and are adapted to arid regions. I think they are much more attractive than the Common Zebra that you see everywhere else. Also present in the part are Gerenuk. They are a species of Antelope that look like a cross between an Impala and a Giraffe. They have extremely long necks for grazing higher up in the foliage than other species can. Samburu has plenty of Oryx, something you generally only see in dry regions like Etosha in Namibia. The Ostriches in Samburu are Somali Ostrich. They have light blue legs and necks instead of the pink of Ostriches in the south. We arrived a couple days after a torrential rainstorm that caused much flash flooding in the area. Everything had dried out sufficiently to get around without problems and lots of fresh green grass shoots were sprouting everywhere. My first day had interesting scenic clouds, and my second day had the bluest sky of my whole trip. So the first day was good for scenics and the second day was better for animals.

First morning sunrise from my camp. Looks like the start of a good day:


Good clouds for scenics:


Lots of branching palms. Some of them look like Candelabras:


More nice clouds:


Somali Ostrich have pale blue legs and necks:


The Vulture Guinea Fowl looks like someone attached a vulture’s head onto a Guinea Fowl body:


The Elephants in the park have a very reddish coloration:


Mom and baby. This is a wide angle shot, they were VERY close to the 4x4:


Grevy’s Zebra and its baby:


Lots of Dik Dik in the park:


Gerenuk look like they are part Impala and part Giraffe:


A pair of young Oryx in a mock battle for mating supremacy. A couple older males look on to see what talent is coming up:


A Reticulated Giraffe in the shade of an Acacia:


A hunting Cheetah:


A Leopard with it’s kill in a tree:


The trouble with getting a drink at the river is that you get your paws muddy:


Yawn, must be time for a cat nap:


I saw more camels on the way out of Samburu than Cows: