Samburu National Reserve

Samburu, we'll come back !

Coming from Lake Elmentaita, where we spent two nights there in the marvellous Sunbird Lodge (*****).
In Samburu we stayed at the Samburu Serena Lodge. Great place to stay.
The early morning game drive is a MUST ! Best chance to see the wild animals.

We did the whole tour with Phoenix Safaris Nairobi (our second tour with them!) , thanx to their staff !

Hidden Secret

Samburu and ist sister Buffalo Springs are bit off the big tourist stream.
Maybe they a bit far in the north or the klimate is considered as too hot. I do not know.
There are a number of good reasons to stay there for some days just discovering and ejoying nature.
Both parks are divided by the Ewaso Ngiro river which is the only contant source of water in this dry area. Just spot a long the river a wait till the animals are coming for drink or bath. The elephants aren't shy and from a certain distance their interesting social behaviour can be observated. Further, the beauty retuculated giraffe, beisa oryx antelopes, the blue leged somali ostrich, the big grevy zebra and the gerenuk (long necke iraffe antelope) can be seen, but not to be found in the southern more popular parks. Samburu is a good place for spotting leopards (7 times in 4 days including a mother with a cub). Also Lions are in area. Further wildlife is al around just stop, be quiet, take time and enjoy.
Ony a few lodges and camps can be found in Samburu. It appears as a bit a remote place.
I am looking for wildlife and not so much interested in stars or whatever ratings of the lodges. There might be more exclusive and luxurious places.
The park is operated by the local Samburu community and was in 2009 in a good shape. Unlike other parks, no cattle was found grazing within the park. The staff was always friendly and helpful.

In the footsteps of Joy Adamson

A wonderfull peacefull place, with a lot of wildlife. Giraffe, buffalo, waterbuck, elephants, zebra and the beautiful Grevy's zebra. Also Lion, leopard and cheetah are also quite easy to spot. The gerenuks wich stand on their hind legs to feed are great to see.

The landscape is rich and varied with hills and plains, wood, grassland and a river that runs through.

Varied, remote country from rugged hills via dusty slopes down to the river. Flora & fauna to match.

Samburu has varied country from the rocky hills, through the dry and dusty slopes down to the Ewaso Ng'iro river. The fauna and flora were equally varied but there was evidence of stress from the changing climate. Samburu had suffered from drought and then, around the river, serious floods.
Our trip was just off-season so the park had few vehicles and the lodge had few guests. We saw big game (lion, cheetah, elephant etc) and numerous smaller animals. Although some trees had died, there were signs of recovery and those in flower were beautiful. The clear air meant it was easy to see birds.
The park is remote, from an outsider's point of view. We reached it by plane from Nairobi Wilson to Samburu airport and were picked up by a Samburu Lodge vehicle. So the first game drive was on the way to the Lodge! The guide was excellent. Later, we witnessed the aftermath of a kill, returning several times to see the animals and birds that turned up at different times.
The accommodation was excellent; food and service couldn't be faulted.

An Exciting place for every kind of visitors with hihg density of animals and excelent services

My general impression is a place to see animals on their real habitat on very close situations. I personally stayed at the Samburu Serena Lodge. They are really friendly and accommodations are great. Also the food at the buffet.
The reserve is a very small place but the river is the meeting point for all kind of animals. The secret is to get a good guide with experience in a vehicle on good conditions.
I did all my trip to Africa helped locally with Abercombie & Kent and for sure they are the best on the continent. I think the most important think is do arrangements with a local company plenty of experience capable on connections and services continuity from one park to another.

We had a great trip to Samburu N.P., staying at Larson's Camp. Game viewing was excellent, as was the accomodation and scenery. ***For the present, visitors should be aware that heavy rains have recently caused devestation in the area.

Also a very quiet NP with a lot of animals and birds

Opportunity to see unique wildlife, such as the Grevy's zebra. Overused, but still a magical place.

Beautiful Safari, Exotic Animals

We went to Africa for our honeymoon/first anniversary. Samburu was our first stop and it did not disappoint. We stayed at Saruni Samburu and it was amazing! Highly recommend it! Our suite overlooked a watering hole and the African plains. It was indoor/outdoor and huge with dining and living areas seperate from the bedroom and bath. The staff took amazing care of us while we were there.

The safari was great we saw leopard and her cub, lionesses hanging out in a tree, crocs, ellies and countless others. We rarely saw another car. It felt like we had the entire reserve to ourselves. Highly recommend Samburu National Reserve. It has five types of animals you will not see anywhere else.

Fanstastic experience which exceeded our expectations.

My wife, 14 year old son and I stayed at Samburu Intrepids camp and were treated like royalty from the moment we arrived to the moment we boarded our safari plane to leave. I cannot think of anything we didn't like about the camp. We had a safari jeep and a guide, whose name was Jelly, all to ourselves. Jelly was excellent and went out of his way to find the animals for us. Before every game drive he would ask if there was any particular animal we wanted to see and he never failed to find the animals we mentioned. The scenery was beautiful with hills and escarpments and the wildlife was plentiful but we often felt like we were the only people on safari there. Usually only when there was a 'special' sighting would we see other safari vehicles and we sometimes had these special sightings all to ourselves. Like the time we watched 3 cheetahs from the same family behaving aggresively towards another lone cheetach, a video of which is on YouTube. I have rated every aspect of the safari as 5 stars apart from the wildlife which I gave 4 and that is only because we also went to the Masai Mara where the wildlife was even more plentiful.