The Malibu Artist: Kenya: Samburu National Reserve...Part 1

Last month, I got to experience something I've always dreamed of; a photo safari in some of Africa's most renowned game reserves. As a nature lover, it was an experience of a lifetime to say the least. As a photographer, I ended up taking nearly 80 gigs of photographs and 50 gigs of video. But with all those photos, not only did I have to spend some time converting from RAW to jpeg, I also had to come up with something educational to write about utilizing the photographs.

With so many photographs, what am I going to write about? This is where you have to help me.

I'm interested in fielding any questions that you may have about taking photographs in nature, traveling with equipment, or whatever it may be. I welcome any topics regarding my experience in Africa. Just message me.

For now, I just want to spend some time summarizing the places visited during this trip. Just in case you ever decide to go there. The primary tour operator for the safari was Vintage Africa . Our driver and guide, Edward was absolutely amazing; knowledgeable, friendly and aware of the places to be for photography.

Samburu National Reserve:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samburu_National_Reserve

This is the homeland of the nomadic Samburu people, whose culture attaches great value to tending their livestock of cattle, sheep, goats and camels as their main economic activity. It is located north of Mount Kenya.

Samburu's dry and arid climate gives it a very unique landscape compared to most places in Kenya. On a clear day you can see the snow capped Mount Kenya in the distance. Samburu is home to most of the "Big Five" including Lions and Leopard. An interesting component of Samburu is that it's rich in species not seen in southern Kenya's more famous parks. Those species include the Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, kudu and gerenuk. But it is probably best known for it's abundance of African elephants.

In Samburu, it's not rare to be surrounded by large groups of elephants.

Elephants on the path during a morning game drive

Elephants:

Elephants, elephants, and more elephants! For anyone who wants to see these beautiful animals roaming gracefully in the open, Samburu is the place to go. In fact, during my time there, BBC was filming and broadcasting live, the elephants for their real time documentary Planet Earth Live.

Lodging/Tents:
Samburu Intrepids Luxury Tented Camp
This luxurious tented lodge sits on the bank of the Ewaso Nyiro River with a private view of the wildlife-rich river bank. Each tent sits on a raised deck overlooking the brown river where the elephants often make an appearance next to the tents or the crocodiles come out to lounge by the river’s banks.

Elephants welcoming us to Samburu as we drove into
The Intrepids Luxury Tented Camp.

This place was just amazing. Every "tent" was worthy of a 5 Star rating. It was a completely self sustained camp. Electricity would shut off everyday between 3-6pm and then again at midnight until 4am for power generation. The water was heated via a solar powered system.

As far as food was concerned, the chef was up to par with any 4 or 5 Star resort. Breakfast offered a full breakfast buffet with every type of breakfast food available. The cook making the omelets was fabulous. Dinner was a formal affair (by bush standards) of sorts. For both lunch and dinner, the chef created a great five course meal including vegetarian entrees.

My download station in my tent at Samburu Interpids. Of course, the monkeys
were curious.

Every evening, the on site naturalist gave a wildlife presentation that went well with game drives. Additionally, star gazing and walking safaris were offered.

Bathroom within the tent.

Bed with mosquito netting within the Tent.

Game Drives:
There were a total of four game drives in the two days we were there. Normally, as is custom with all places, you participate in an early morning game drive and a afternoon/sunset game drive daily. I found that the early morning game drive was particularly more active than the evening, but that may have just been by circumstance.

Here are some photos of the wildlife at Samburu National Park. In my next entry, I will summarize my second stop; Sweetwater's Tented Camp near Mount Kenya.