Light Musings

Kenyan Adventure – Day 2 and 3

We arose early on the morning of January 14th to catch our East African Air Charter flight to Samburu Game Reserve. We flew in a 13 passenger Cessna Caravan. The game reserve is 217 miles north of Nairobi in the very center of Kenya and covers 64 square miles. Along the way we would fly past Mount Kenya, the second highest peak in Africa at 17,000 ft. The reserve was established in 1985 as part of Kenya’s ongoing attempt to protect it’s natural wildlife resources. It is also one of the two areas in which conservationists George and Joy Adamson raised Elsa the Lioness made famous in the best selling book and award winning movie Born Free.

We landed on a small gravel airstrip south of the reserve. Unfortunately, recent rains had washed out the bridge across the Ewaso Ng'iro river turning what is normally a short drive to our camp into a 2 hour trek. Fortunately we saw lots of wildlife along the way.

We finally arrived at the Samburu Intrepids camp. The Intrepids company operate a series of luxury camps in Africa and ours was no exception. We would spend the next 3 nights in our beautiful tent cabins. The camp sported all the comforts one could ask for. The only drawback was that the water was not potable. All drinking water, including that used for brushing your teeth needed to come from bottled water.

At 4 pm that afternoon we had our first game drive. Our group of 13 people had 4 Range Rovers with drivers. This provided us with lots of room for our photography gear and to move around.

The roads in Samburu are little more than deeply rutted tracks. Whenever you were moving you were constantly tossed about. It was a very tiring and bruising experience. Fortunately the discomfort was offset by the magnificent wildlife. An magnificent barely begins to describe what we saw.

One the drive from the airstrip to the camp we had seen gazelle, impala, zebra, giraffe, crocodile, gerenuk, Egyptian geese and more. Inside the reserve was more of the same. What really surprised us was the incredible bird life. We saw birds that I had never even heard of before.

Martial Eagle

The highlight of our first day was the sighting of two cheetahs. Cheetahs were number one on my list of animals I wanted to see and here I was getting to see them on our first outing! They are the most beautiful animals, although these two looked like they could have used a good meal. None the less it was quite a thrill to see them up close in the wild.
Our schedule for the rest of our time in Kenya would be roughly the same. Every morning at 5:15 am we would get our wake up call. Porters brought freshly brewed coffee and cookies to our tent. By 6:15 we were out for our first game drive of the day. And our second day would be among the most spectacular. The list of animals for this, our first full day, included: Impala, Elephants, Martial Eagle, Giraffe, Lions, a Kori Bustard (the heaviest bird in the world still capable of flight), Ostrich, Vervet monkeys and an Easter Pale Chanting Goshawk. At one point we found ourselves in a herd of over 25 elephants. For the most part the animals ignored our Range Rover. However, one small elephant seemed determined to show us who was boss.

The highlight of the day was watching two Ostriches mate. The male and female tracked each other across a huge field, their intent obvious. The male puffed out his neck and called to the female. Upon coming together the male performed his mating dance and consummated the act. Awesome.



The lions we saw were pretty laid back. But we would see many more later in the trip.

Kori Bustard

Vervet Monkey

Eastern Pale Chanting Goshawk