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| Glenn's Journal for 10-25-02 - Samburu A full day in Samburu means that we have time to ourselves. The schedule today includes getting up at 6:00 am, game drive from 6:30 am - 8:30 am, and then breakfast at the lodge. We then have the rest of the day to ourselves until our 4:00 pm game drive. Lunch is served at our leisure between 12:30 pm and 2:00 pm and includes another full buffet. The National reserves that we are driving through today include Samburu and Buffalo Springs. Shaba National Reserve is also nearby. These are all along the Ewaso Ngiro River, which is known for some large crocodiles along the river. Samburu and Buffalo Springs are well known for the elephants, reticulated giraffe, and the many species of gazelle. This morning's game drive included watching more elephants live life along with giraffe, gazelles, secretary birds, and other more common African animals. We returned to the lodge near on schedule and spent the next hour enjoying breakfast. After breakfast we returned to our room for a little nap and reading. After lunch we stopped by the pool for some additional relaxation until it started to rain, which sent us back to our room in wait for the afternoon game drive. The afternoon game drive provided us a chance to watch some male impalas practice jousting with each other. They would lower their heads and lock horns, but only for practice as they would lick each other afterwards. It was pretty neat to watch!!! Otherwise the rest of the drive was quiet with elephants, giraffe, zebra, oryx, dik-diks, and many types of birds. We returned back to the lodge around 6:15 pm and decided to stay for the feeding at 6:30 pm. The lodge places food across the river for a leopard to enjoy and sure enough, as on cue, the leopard was sitting on a perch eating away. You could hear from our vantage point across the river the crunching of bones. We stayed for a half hour or so before heading back to the room to clean up for dinner. (We heard later that a hyena showed up to share in the leftovers, and even sometimes a crocodile will join the fray). We went to dinner around 8:00 pm where we enjoyed the full buffet including soup, fresh fruit, pasta, salads, and dessert. After dinner we walked along the path checking for other animals along the river and in the bushes. It was nice to finally spend some time relaxing today. Tomorrow we are off to Mt. Kenya. |
| The position a giraffe must assume to eat from the ground is rather comical! |