Kenya

SAMBURU - AMBOSELI - MASAI MARA

SAMBURU - DAY 1

After an hour and a half flight from Kisoro airstrip to Entebbe (on the tiniest, oldest 2 passenger plane), a 50 minute flight to Nairobi, a night at beautiful Hemingways, and an hour flight to Samburu airstrip (including one stop at another airstrip to drop some passengers), we finally arrived at Sasaab. (Yes, I know that was an extremely long run on sentence. Moving on!)  Sasaab is a gorgeous lodge in the Samburu area. They offer amazing private safaris with knowledgable guides and spotters from the local Samburu tribe, camel rides, atv rides, walking safaris, tours of the local tribes, fantastic meals, and so much more. Even though we only had one full day here, it was so worth it!

Your safari starts right when you land, as you are picked up from the airstrip by your private guides in your open-air jeep and see so much wildlife on the hour and a half drive to the lodge. Our room at the lodge was really a large tent, completely open and overlooking the river. Tent is probably the wrong word, since it really was like a gorgeous hotel room without walls, only zipped up at night with some mesh separating you from the wildlife outdoors. Our set up was absolutely amazing, although I do need to warn anyone who is thinking about staying here- the toilet and sinks are outdoors, so when you are trying to get ready for bed/pee at night or early morning, be prepared to deal with a lot of bats and bugs who do not know the meaning of personal space! Those guys all go crazy for the light! Each meal at Sasaab was amazing, and the staff is incredibly friendly. 

Our first evening at Sasaab, we took a beautiful 40 minute walk through the bush to a big rock where we had sundowners as we watched the gorgeous African sunset. There truly is no sunset or sunrise like those in Africa, where you can see the entire orange sphere move so quickly across the horizon. From here, we were met by our guide and jeep for a quick night safari before dinner. 

The next morning, we headed out at 6am for our safari on the national reserve. What an incredible experience! We got insanely lucky with what we saw, and Hunter got some unbelievable photos. We came across a young marshal’s eagle who had just caught a guinea fowl, and was plucking it’s feathers out before eating it. We then watched as a leopard munched on the remains of his early morning catch- a kudu calf- up in a tree. When the leopard decided he wanted to go hide the rest of the body for an evening snack, we watched as he struggled to get the body out of the tree, since the remaining two hind limbs had twisted around a tree branch. It was so amazing to watch, and the carcass looked like a movie prop that had been placed there for our entertainment. A family of elephants walked across the desert plain in front of our jeep to cross the shallow river, while another family had just finished bathing, and were now throwing dirt on their backs right in front of us. I could go on and on, as each experience was so unique!

Later that afternoon, our guide, Gabriel, took us out to play around on some ATVs, eventually leading us to one of the Samburu villages where we met with our spotter who is also from the Samburu tribe. We were greeted by a large group of extremely excited children who were so curious and wanted to see us so badly, but were also quite shy and kept their distance. That is, until we pulled out the camera. All it took was showing them one photo of themselves, and they immediately came out of their shells, wanting more and more photos taken, and also wanting to learn to take photos! I tried taking out my phone to film the madness, but as soon as they saw I had another camera, they went nuts! The half of the children that weren’t playing with the Leica handed me a baby goat and took my phone to take more photos. I wasn’t sure if this meant I had traded my phone for a goat, but I wasn’t really upset about it! The goat was super cute and snuggley. I eventually got my phone back, and before moving on with our tour of the village, our guide had Hunter (unsuccessfully) try to milk a goat. Its a bit awkward when you try to milk something and nothing comes out! We were shown around the village and told so much about the local people. We learned about their culture and traditions, and were even able to tour one of their small homes. It’s amazing how there are people that still live the way these people do. Visiting the village really reminds you to be grateful for what you have, while also making you realize how much we don’t need.