Kenya Samburu Walking Safari

Samburu National Reserve, Kenya · Kenya

Easy7 daysAfrica~£2,500 est.

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Overview

Samburu is Kenya's northern frontier distilled: red earth, doum palms along the Ewaso Ng'iro river, and the 'Special Five' found in few other places - Grevy's zebra with their pinstripe flanks, reticulated giraffe, Beisa oryx, the blue-necked Somali ostrich and the absurd, elegant gerenuk standing on hind legs to browse. Leopards den along the river at the highest density in Kenya, and the elephants here are studied by name. The walking is what changes you. Game walks run in the neighbouring community conservancies - Westgate, Kalama - since the reserve itself is vehicle-only, and on foot behind an armed Samburu guide the bush recalibrates your senses within an hour: wind direction suddenly matters, and elephants at sixty metres feel very different without a bonnet in front of you. Your guides' tracking knowledge, read from bent grass and dung beetles, is the deepest wildlife education on offer in East Africa. The dry months - June to September, January to February - concentrate game on the river. Around £2,500 covers a week mixing a conservancy walking camp with reserve game drives, conservancy fees included; those fees are what keep this land wild.