Safariing in Samburu

Now is the time to smoosh together everything that's not an elephant, giraffe, lion, or zebra; which stills leaves a lot of interesting things!

 

The most easily spotted animals were baboons and the various antelope. Baboons really are wretchedly ugly creatures. I feel predisposed to disliking them as they're known for attacking leopards when really I think things should go the other way around. We did see a few baby baboons though which were proof positive that babies are always adorable; even if they grow up to be ugly.

I love the bird nests in these trees

There were so many types of antelopes! Waterbucks, gerenuks also called giraffe antelopes because of their very long necks, gazelles, oryx, and dik-diks. The miniature dik-diks were my favorite of the antelopes. At only 14-17 inches tall and weighing in at 12 pounds these little guys are smaller than my mom's Pomeranian. And the horns on the males are so tiny it was sometimes hard to spot them. They mate for life so you (almost) always see them in pairs or maybe in trios if they have off spring. Our guide told us that when one of the pair dies the other dies of loneliness within six months.

Trying to hang on!

Oryx mixing with the baboons

I also enjoyed the oryx, not only because it made me think of Margaret Atwood's excellent Oryx and Crake (which I freely admit I understood not in the least but still enjoyed) but because I was fascinated by their horns. Growing up in the country around hunters I'm well accustomed to seeing deer about; although usually dead on the side of the road or hanging in my dad's barn. I always refused to go in his barn during bow or gun season because you never knew when or what might be hanging there. Shudder.

No idea what's going on here

All I could think when I saw these was "yum"

We also saw lots of birds, most of which I wasn't able to photograph properly. I did get a shot of a horn bill and that sighting alone made my Lion King watching prep worth the time!

We didn't see many gerenuks but they're rather interesting

More bird nests

I was kind of obsessed with these trees!

Even when we weren't spotting animals I wasn't bored because the scenery was remarkable on its own.

Horn bill

Water buck

Water bucks again

More water buck

Adorable dik-diks

This was truly an amazing trip worth waiting 35 years to experience. Of course now I want to go to Tsavo which is known for its cat sightings or to the Serengeti in Kenya or Tanzania. Next time though, I will definitely spring for the telephoto lens before I go!

Me safari ready!