Nairobi & Samburu - Kenya

We landed back in Nairobi during the middle of a fierce thunderstorm, a fine welcome back to Africa.  We had arranged for the driver from Indaba to meet us which was a good move considering Nairobi after dark. It was after 10pm when we reached Indaba, everyone was in bed and the place was in darkness so we just quickly made sure Rupert was ok then did the same.

The trip had taken it's toll so we got up late, thankfully Indaba was quiet and the sun was shining. We spent the day re-packing in preparation for getting back on the road and finally got round to fixing the problem with Rupert's lights.

The next two days were spent getting supplies, we had decided to go to Samburu before returning to the Masai Mara in September. Samburu lies in the desert regions in the East of Kenya close to the border with Somalia so we would need to be fully prepared.

Till now our journeys from Nairobi had all been Westwards (Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Lake Victoria etc), true Amboseli and Tsavo lay to the South East but we had approached them from Tanzania, Samburu would be our first attempt at going North East from Nairobi. This meant we had to drive across the city centre and even though we left Indaba before 8am it took 45 minutes to just get across town through the heavy traffic. 

Finally we reached the Thika road, our main route Northwards, the town of Thika, immortalised in Elspeth Huxley's book "The Flame Tree's Of Thika", used to be separated from Nairobi by miles of bush nowadays it is little more than a suburb with as far as we could see not a Flame Tree in sight.

From Thika we headed Northeast towards the town of Nyeri, set high in the mountains on a sunny day it would be lovely but  unfortunately today was wet and cloudy. Just after midday we crossed the Equator and soon we were in Nanyuki where the road started to deteriorate badly.  From here our route led us Northwards to Isiolo and Archers Post, in the mountains we had driven through a torrential hailstorm now as we descended steeply the scenery dramatically emerged into a desert with clear blue sky's.  

At 1.30pm we reached Isiolo the last place to get fuel before  heading onto Archers Post and the turning for Samburu. From Isiolo the tar gave way to gravel, very corrugated in parts so the going was slow. For the last hour or so we had seen fewer and fewer cars now apart from the odd Camel herder the road was almost deserted.

Samburu is one of Kenya's least visited parks, to reach it you drive Northwards towards Moyale and the border with Ethiopia, Somalia lies to the East and the whole area has a reputation for Shifta (bandit) attacks. To drive to Moyale you are supposed to join a convoy escorted by the Kenyan police and army. We would not go that far but still it had it's dangers, after our trip two French tourist vehicles were reported to have been attacked by bandits near Archers Post so you need to be aware and be alert.

Finally at 3pm, seven hours after leaving Indaba we reached Samburu. Samburu is quite different to most game parks, an authentic wilderness it has some unique and unusual species such as the Gerenuk and Reticulated Giraffe.

It is also the place where George & Joy Adamson of Born Free fame raised Elsa the Lioness in the late 1950s and more recently for Kamunyak the Lioness who incredibly adopted at least six Oryx calves even protecting them from fellow members of her Lion pride, so despite the hazards we felt we had to see Samburu at least once.

Situated on the bank of the Ewaso Ng'iro river, on the other side lies Buffalo Springs Game Reserve which you can also visit but you will be charged separately for that, we had been in the park for just a few minutes when we saw one of the animals we had come specially to see, the Gerenuk.

Unlike any other antelope the Gerenuk can stand upright on it's hind legs, this combined with it's very long neck means it can browse on leaves too high for other antelopes. Gerenuk is a Somali word meaning 'Giraffe Necked' which leads to the Gerenuk also being called the Giraffe Necked Antelope.

Samburu has five special sub species which we wanted to see, the Gerenuk, Grevy's Zebra, Reticulated Giraffe, Beisa Oryx and the Somali Ostrich, within an hour we had seen four of the five, just the Ostrich eluded us but not a bad start.

By now it was after 4pm  and we needed to sort out our camp spot for the night, we had already found a sign for one of the special camp sites which when we checked it out was a pretty spot on the river, it didn't look like it had been used for quite a while which wasn't a problem but the Samburu village on the other side of the river was.

We stopped by the rangers office to check the location of the other sites but they told us if we wanted to stay on any special site we would have to take two armed rangers as guards! They said this was necessary to keep us safe from dangerous animals but we suspected if it was then it was because of the two legged kind!

Having to take guards put us right off the specials so we went to check out the public campsite but here we found a mobile safari company had already erected their tents on all the best spots, so not much space for us and they could be noisy, this was not looking good as our options were quickly running out!

Leaving the public campsite we drove by chance down a track which had at one time been blocked and found by chance a private camp called Lion Camp.  The camp had erected six permanent A frame Meru tents but not a soul was around, we were just about to leave when the owner, Nazeer, appeared out of nowhere and said as they had no guests we could pitch our tent in the rough grass behind one of the Meru tents if we wished, for a fee of course.

However, this would leave us no view of the river so after a bit of negotiation he eventually agreed we could camp in front of the Meru right on the edge of the river bank, much better. In any other park we would have been shown the door so we took it as being very indicative of how low the visitor numbers are to Samburu, for Nazeer clearly any business was good business.

By now it was after 5pm so we quickly started to setup camp before it got dark. There was just time to put up the roof tent but as we planned to stay a few days we would put up the ground tent tomorrow. Luckily the weather was good so we wouldn't need the shelter afforded by the ground tent. 

Suddenly a strong wind got up, surely not, Samburu is hot and very dry for most of the year, rain should only occur after November but now it suddenly started to pour down, unbelievable how often it rains, sometimes after months of drought, once we arrive!

Luckily the Meru tent behind us had a big awning with table and chairs so we could use there to cook under and although it rained for the next few hours it wasn't too bad. Nazeer's head guy, Duncan, called round to check on us and then later the Samburu Askari (watchman) came by, clearly it was not just the animals they were worried about.

Up early to a bright and sunny day, everything was soaked from the rain but it would soon dry in the sun. We put up the ground tent then started breakfast, suddenly we heard a noise and the zip on the Meru started moving. What we hadn't realised was the Askari had gone in there during the night to kip, probably thinking he could make his exit after we went out on for an early morning game drive, but he hadn't counted on us staying in camp to put up the ground tent so had been trapped till in the end thirst or wanting the loo forced him to emerge and without a word sheepishly wandered off, quite funny really.     

Yesterday as we were driving I heard an intermittent knocking sound under the vehicle and found one of the two steel brackets supporting the reserve fuel tank had snapped. We had had this problem before the tank was installed by Just Done It in Cape Town but the problem is in RSA they are not familiar with the tougher road conditions in East Africa, as neither where we, otherwise we would have insisted on having three straps fitted.   

The tank was still holding on the remaining strap but it would be too risky driving any great distance the way it was, especially off road, we urgently needed a welder but we were miles from anywhere. Luckily just then Duncan came by and to our relief he said the camp had a welder who could help and sure enough within a couple of hours we had fitted a new piece to the broken strap and refitted it, we were lucky, if we hadn't fixed it we probably would have had to head back to Nairobi early.

The rest of the day was spent exploring, Samburu is a desert, very hot and dry, the only source of water being the Ewaso Ng'iro river which is broad but at this time of year very shallow, hence the increased risk from the settlements on the other side.

In the early evening we heard a Lion calling in the distance but later the wind got up so we didn't hear anything more that  night but we did have a large spotted Genet come into camp for a mooch around, we quite often get these around camp as they are inquisitive and bold.

In the morning just before we went out on our game drive Duncan came by to say on his way back to camp he had caught three Lionesses on the main track just outside the camp in his headlights, pity they hadn't tried to reply.

The day was still quite windy but at least sunny and warm, we drove along the river and crossed the bridge into the Buffalo Springs reserve where true to it's name five Buffalo where there to greet us.

A little further on we came across a big lone bull Elephant, one of the biggest we had seen for a while, certainly bigger than those in the Masai Mara, Samburu must be something in the water down here.

It was the last day of the month and back at camp as we watched the Sun go down we opened a bottle of champagne and toasted Mum's memory. It had been a hell of a month for all the wrong reasons, hopefully September would signal the return to happier times!