Samburu, Kenya

I initially assumed this was going to be just a travel day, and for the most part it was. We left Nairobi at 8:30 am, for an 8 hour caravan bus ride (in 3 safari vehicles) to an area north of the Equator, called Samburu. This is an area we are supposed to see reticulated Giraffe, elephants.... About 4 1/2 hours into the drive, we made a special trip to the base of Mt Kenya off our path to a place called "KentTrout Restaurant". The food was incredible again and we were visited by Black & White Colobus Monkeys, in the trees above the outdoor seating area.

The restaurant was located on a really rough road, I think if we had a regular bus, we would have never made it. Yet once there, it was a lush green tropical oasis, if you will, resting next to a small river and gorgeous farm land. Everywhere outside of the city is very basic and poor, our waiter responded to someone's question of how far he lives from work with "5k's", that's roughly 3 MILES, one way!!! From the looks of the number of people walking along the roads, everyone walks everywhere. We were actually surprised more people weren't killed each year by car accidents, it was ridiculous. I digress, after another couple of hours, we pulled up into the Samburu Game Lodge area at 4:30pm, ready to pop the tops on the vehicles and make our way through our first game drive. This is were the action was!!!! Within 2 hours driving throughout the game park, we saw, Gerenuk (a long necked gazelle), Impala (long necked antelope), an ostrich or 2, lots of guineafolw, a couple packs of elephants, a bunch of birds, reticulated Giraffe, a bunch of Dik Diks, a leopard (not very visible) and a cheetah!!!

The cheetah and elephants were the most exciting, but I guess I also have to mention the Puff Adder, a VERY poisonous snake that feeds on small animals, like the Dik Dik. This game drive stretched the sunset as thin as it could and we arrived at our lodge in the dark. Literally in the dark, for the generators went out the moment we stepped off the buses and we were escorted to our room via flashlight. Made it very mysterious, haha.

Fortunately, it lasted only about 10 minutes and we all met back at the restaurant for dinner. I was so exhausted from all the driving that I was asleep at 9pm!!! And we all know, I'm never asleep before 11 at home, wow.