Samburu Day 2: The Safari Continues

The complete blackness ended around 5:00 when the power in the camp came back on. About 15-20 minutes later, we saw a flashlight outside our tent and someone outside whispered "Hello? Hello?" It was our Samburu wakeup call for the dawn drive.

After getting dressed and monkey proofing our tent (they have a tendency of breaking in and destroying your stuff if you don't tie down the zippers) we headed out for coffee, tea, and biscuits. As the sun rose about 6:30 our caravan of five safari vans ventured out into the reserve. Antelope where everywhere along with the occasional dik-dik (think of a dik-dik as a Antelope clone, perfect in every way, only one-fifth the size).

We managed to spot a vulture in a tree and later found a group of monkeys (not too cheeky). Along the river, we spotted a flock of maribu cranes. On the far end of the sandbar, just sunning himself in the sun, was a small crocodile. We eventually ran into another croc on the other side of the river.

On the way back to the camp, we saw a group of elephants on the move, single file, in the distance. We continued on and came across a baboon sitting by himself near a tree. We moved across to the far side and found a whole group of baboons. One mother was clutching and nursing a baby. When one of the others saw us taking pictures of the mother and little baby, he came over to stand between us and the nursing mother.

The dawn drive turned out to be kind of a bust. We didn't even get to see any elephants up close (a real disappointment after the scenes we saw just driving to the camp the night before). But this is what sets Samburu apart from Crescent Island. You never know what you'll find on any given trip.

We came back to a nice breakfast, enjoyed the pool, had lunch, and saddled up for our dusk safari around 4:00. The dusk safari turned out to be better than the dawn safari.

Again, we started off seeing plenty of antelope they're everywhere in Samburu. It wasn't too long before we found a herd of elephants along the side of the road. The family included a few babies flapping their ears to stay cool.

We eventually had to leave the elephants behind, but it wasn't long until we saw some giraffes in the distance. The giraffes in Samburu are called reticulated giraffes and they have slightly darker coloring than the giraffes we've seen elsewhere. The thing I love about giraffes is that they're almost as curious about us as we are of them. They'll stand there and just stare at you for the longest time.

We left this herd of giraffes behind and headed back to the river. Across the way we could see two male lions still sleeping off the heat of the afternoon. A little further up the river we saw a larger crocodile laying on the muddy bank in the setting sun.

Again, in the distance we could see a herd of giraffes. Getting to this herd wasn't easy. They were on the far side of a dry creek bed that you couldn't cross just anywhere. We eventually found a crossing point and made our way back to the giraffes only to find that the giraffe herd was joined by a herd of elephants. We parked along the road and turned off the engine and just let both herds overtake us. Everywhere we turned there were either giraffes or elephants. Several giraffes crossed the road about 30 yards in front of our van and then an elephant crossed the road about 10-20 yards behind our van.

We moved along the road into more giraffes and found two fighting. Giraffes fight by whipping their heads around on those long necks and slamming them into the sternum or side of the other. The two went at it the entire time we were there.

As the sun set, we headed back. The evening safari, obviously, was much more successful than the morning safari and we still had one more dawn drive to go.