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| Erin's Journal for Samburu (10-24-02 to 10-25-02) We left the Nakuru campsite nice and early for a day-long drive to Samburu. To get there, we had to pass near Mount Kenya, highest peak in the country, and descend into an arid valley. The first part of the journey was very lush and gorgeous, and we stopped at another equator point to get a demonstration of the pulls of gravity on water on each side of and at the exact equator. Very interesting! We also bought our first souvenir there, a hand-painted plate of Africa. They had some amusing mistakes on some of their painted souvenirs, switching the states of California and Florida in their representation of the US. We had fun pointing it out on the map and seeing them scramble to justify it - we almost wanted to send one home just to let our parents know that they each live on opposite coasts now! Moving on, we stopped for lunch in a more arid town called Nanyuki, which is considered at the 'foot' of Mt. Kenya. Not to us...it was still many km before you could reach any trails up the mountain...but we at least got to check emails there. The connection was horrible, but we got one message out to our families to say hey, we're fine. Then after lunch we drove down into a dry valley en route to Samburu. This game preserve is in the northern part of Kenya, and a very desert-like region. There were few trees once we entered the reserve, and lots of scrubby brush, so most animals were in hiding during the hot daytimes. We entered the park late in the afternoon, and were lucky to see our first leopard, and one with a darling little cub! We watched her until a bunch of other vans swarmed the area and scared her cub into hiding, then we went on to see some elephants battling near the road to our lodge. So cool! We arrived at the Samburu Serena Lodge just before dark, and had a wonderful time there. Our room was huge and gorgeous, the meals were wonderful and tasty, and we had a view of the river it sat near. There were monkeys all around to watch, as well as birds, and crocodiles just over the banks in the river. The next day we had an early morning game drive, not seeing much, but then relaxed most of the day. We were tired after all the running around and dirty accommodations of the past week, so we did some laundry in the sink here and laid around, then went for an evening game drive. Mostly what we saw in Samburu were elephants. Lots! We also saw some tiny newborn warthogs, which was cool. The morning of the 26th, we were very sad to leave! |
| Samburu's distant northern mountains were beautiful in the afternoon light |