Samburu is the gateway to Kenya's wild, arid north — a landscape utterly different from the green plains of the south, and all the more spellbinding for it. Here the Ewaso Ng'iro River carves a ribbon of green through a hot, red-earth wilderness of acacia scrub, doum palms and ancient volcanic hills, drawing wildlife to its banks in a daily procession that has continued for millennia. Samburu's fame rests on its 'Special Five' — five dry-country species found almost nowhere else in Kenya: the elegant reticulated giraffe with its crisp geometric coat, the endangered Grévy's zebra with its fine pinstripe, the long-necked gerenuk that browses standing on its hind legs, the blue-legged Somali ostrich and the Beisa oryx with its rapier horns. Around them roam some of the country's finest leopards, big herds of elephant that know the river intimately, lion, cheetah and packs of endangered African wild dog. Presiding over it all is Ol Lolokwe, the great flat-topped sacred mountain of the Samburu people — cattle-herding cousins of the Maasai whose crimson robes, intricate beadwork and deep knowledge of this land give the reserve a living cultural soul. Together with the neighbouring Buffalo Springs and Shaba reserves and a constellation of community conservancies, Samburu forms one of Africa's great conservation success stories, where luxury camps sit lightly on the land and every visit supports the people and wildlife of the north. Remote, dramatic and refreshingly uncrowded, Samburu is the wild heart of a Kenya few travellers ever reach.
Luxury5 Days
