Our first glimpse of Kenya in the daylight. Nairobi is a big city. Big buildings and advertisements for products and services from back home - more the look and feel of North America than Dar es Salaam. George pointed out the highlights that we passed and soon we were out of the downtown core - it sort of looked like the 2 & 20 from Montreal to Dorval. There were schools at at seemingly every 2nd intersection from downtown to well out of the city.

The countryside was hilly and fertile - rich red-brown soil all around, supporting mostly subsistence farms. After a while these family plots gave way to larger commercial operations - coffee, tea, corn, wheat, beans, greenhouses (flowers are cut in the morning, to the airport by nightfall, on the streets of London and Paris the next morning), DelMonte pineapple farms - miles and miles of pineapples, yum.

Then we passed the rain shadow of Mount Kenya, the highest peak in Kenya. Fabulous cactii were the only survivors in this desert. Then wheat again.

At the town of Isilolo we crossed into northern Kenya, sort of a no-mans land. This area borders on Sudan and Ethiopia and we're told that because of the crackdown on terrorism, the warlords of Ethiopia sometimes operate in this area. Not sure that the tours would be going here if that were the case, but that's the information that we recieved.

The best way to describe this land is barren. There is nothing growing except the heartiest of cactii and the Samburu tribe settle it. The distances between villages is great and the local mode of transport is the camel - there are no private motor vehicles. The road is so bad that there are tracks on either side and that's where we drove most of the time. These tracks are far from smooth, so you can imagine how we felt after about 22 hours on the road in the last 31 hours.

At about 4 p.m. we hit the gate to Samburu National Reserve, separated from Buffalo Springs National Reserve by the Ewaso Ngiro River. This brown river is an oasis for the animals that wander in and out of these reserves. We went to freshen up and when we returned to our safari bus, the roof had been popped open, ready for safari. Despite the long journeys of the last 2 days, our spirits jumped as George started driving and we looked for the main event. A few miles into the reserve, we were greeted by Heckyl and Jeckyl pictued above.

In the following sections are a selection of animals that we saw in Samburu and Buffalo Springs.

These reserves are primarily savanah. Along the river and creek beds are palm and acacia trees, and the acacias spot the savanah. There is not a lot of wildlife here, compared to other places that we safaried, but it has a charm of its own. The wildlife is harder to spot so much more satisfying when you make a sighting.

Speaking of satisfying, check out these leopards (also pictured in the Introduction to this Journal). Originally we saw only one resting on a tree. These are not easy to spot so quite exciting, even for George. After admiring the large leopard, we noticed the smaller one, until now obscured by the tree, stirring. These are mother and son! We admired and snaped pictures for some time.

Female leopards are usually solitary, although they hang with their up to 3 cubs until the little ones are ready to make it on their own. Very able hunters, they prefer gazelles and usually hoist them into trees to avoid losing them to lions and hyenas.

We later discovered that these 2 were feasting on an impala until likely interrupted by safari vehicles. The carcass was abandoned a couple of yards from the tree.

This strange looking antelope looks like a cross between a gazelle and a giraffe (sort of). They are ideally adapted to this area as they don't drink (from a fiver or stream)! They get all of the water that they need from morning dew or the vegetation that they eat. They often eat standing on their hind legs reahing as high as they can with their long necks. The lower vegetation tends to be eaten by shorter animals.

These cute, little, also water independant guys are not more than a yard tall at the head. They are monogamous and territorial. They also use a designated spot in their territory as a toilet! Ideal for domestication (just kidding). They are often spotted in underbrush. If one of a pair is killed, the other does not seek another mate.

This animal is affectionately known as a 111 - it's tail has a black stripe on it and the hind quarters on each side have a similar stripe, so viewed from the back, they look like their license plate says 111. They are quite common where there is grass to eat.

There are a number os different types of guineafowl running around Kenya and Tanzania. The one pictured here looks like it's got a helmet on, thus it's name.

We are told that they cannot be hunted and that they taste like chicken - go figure.

There are many different types of weaver birds in East Africa. They come in a variety of colors and songs and all weave a similar nest. They are social birds and it's not uncommon to see many nests on a single tree. They weave more nests than they inhabit to throw off pedators.

You can appreciate the skill involved in building this hanging nest!

It's called a secretary bird because:-

1 - it wears high heels 2 - it wears a short skirt 3 - it has pens in it's hair 4 - when it catches a snake it flies it up and drops it to stun it, then it stomps on it to kill it and this stomping action looks like it's typing 5 - it makes great coffee

Which is incorrect?

This young lady was resting on the shore of the Ewaso Ngiro River and decided to go to the river to take a drink - you can imagine how many shots I took!! Then an African Buffalo approached (both counted in the Big 5). Each carefully eyed the other and retreated. That's what you call respect.

These guys are insect eaters. We shot this one hanging with the elephants in the next section. We observed these flying from elephant to elephant, grooming the pachyderms. We also later saw them on their own, singing away.

How can you resist photographing these guys? They are truly magnificent creatures.

This photo captures the sunset and one of the many acacia trees that stud East Africa. Again, how can you resist...

These antelopes are also unique to this area. They drink very infrequently, making them a good fit here.

Their young also look like lions from the back (especially when drinking) until they take on mature coloring.

Notice the markings on the head. There are 3 stripes and the eye is in the front stripe. Predators tend to see all stripes and assume that they have been spotted, so abort an attack. Lions have been known to get gored on the long horns during attacks.

This young guy was advising us not to proceed. He figured that we were too close and started waving his ears and stomping his hoof. George heeded the warning.

We also learned that only 25% of an elephant's tusks are visible!

We caught this guy boogying around on his own, probably lost.

This songbird caught my ear. The resulting picture reveals the thorny details of the acacia tree. Elephants and giraffes regularly eat these - ouch.

This variety of zebra is unique to this part of the country. Notice that the stripes don't quite wrap around the belly and that the mane is more substantial than the common zebra.

These guys usually hang around in pairs and around water.

Like the Grevy's zebra, these guys are unique to this area. They are distinguished from their Masi cousins in that the Grevy's brown patches are larger and more regular.

The safari that generated the above pictures more than made up for the 2 days of grueling travel that it took to get here. The 5* Samburu Serena Lodge treatment wasn't too shabby either!

Monkeys frequent this property often enough that signs are posted:-

PLEASE DO NOT FEED OR ENCOURAGE THE MONKEYS. THEY ARE UNPREDICTABLE AND CAN BITE OR SCRATCH.

This particular ape looks remarkably like Rick.