2017/09 Part 6 Samburu - Sun pm Giraffes & zebras |
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Nzuki took us out along the river bank, weaving between palm trees. Out first find was this yellow-billed hornbill, obviously relaxed but vigilant, eying the tourists.
Our first new bird though was this vulturine guinea fowl, more splendid than the helmeted guinea fowl we’d seen before. We assume that these had evolved in isolation. They deserve a better name than vulturine though.
The giraffes too are different; these are reticulated giraffes with a whiter background and 
more regular markings, These are the giraffes of picture books. Up until now we’d been seeing Masai giraffes, mostly darker and with smaller markings. They’re all wonderful to us, dinosaurs marching through the savannah.
The gerenuks were the same as we’d seen before but there seemed to be a lot more of them and they were more prone to standing up to feed. See the one on the left.
The zebra were different; these are Grevy’s zebra with finer striping and 
a bare white underbelly. They made us wonder whether this might have given them an evolutionary advantage amongst Samburu’s different plant life. The birds on its back are oxpeckers, living on the ticks and other bloodsuckers that infest all the large animals.
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Samburu Sunday PM game drive (5.14) |
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The ostriches too were different and these are Somali ostriches, with bluish neck and legs instead of pinks and oranges.
There were plenty of little dik-diks like this to be seen, but I don’t remember seeing any gazelles, next size up on the menu..
This is a regular termite mound but Nzuki thought it had been used by elephants as a scratching post. Not sure what this would feel like for the termites!
This is another species of ibis, the hadada ibis, not quite as flashy as its cousins. Similarly this crested francolin lacks the red and yellow face 
markings of its relatives.
There were elephants everywhere, not surprisingly given the name of our
camp, but the figurehead species for the park is the Beisa oryx, It’s an elegant antelope with a funny face and absolutely magnificent parallel horns, sometimes growing to four feet. They gather in tight herds and somehow manage to keep their horns up and avoid accidents. Except during the rut, of 
course, when things get bloody.
Samburu does not have the extensive grasslands so it does not have the great herds of wildebeest and zebra. Instead it has a green corridor along the river where there’s a similar mixture of species. For example, when takingpictures of this marabou stork it was hard not get a baboon or two in the photo. And then we came to this great crowd of 
helmeted guinea fowl; yes it seems that both kinds of fowl coexist here. 
We also found this young Samburu; Nzuki donated a snack and a water bottleand we got a smile for our picture.
Looking away from the river we could see a range of mountains which Nzuki said were the Samburu Hills. I’ve also 
seen the triangular mountain referred to as Cone Mountain.
It was getting late now and Sandie took this gorgeous evening picture of the river. We drove past what I thought was the entrance to the camp but Nzuki just shook his head. We drove on a mile or two and came out on the river bank.
Sandie looked out her window and thought we were gatecrashing somebody’s party. I looked out my window and saw uniformed men with guns and I didn’t know what to think. Nzuki opened our doors and added to the confusion with a cheery “Time for a swim!” 
In reality it was a surprise party, staged by the camp every other day so most visitors get to attend at least once. We had snacks and orange juice spiked generously with rum.
The guys with the guns were park rangers tasked with separating the partiers from the lions. It turned out that most people there were related: eight siblings and their partners (in the picture). They were Americans but one pair lived in Kenya and had organized the reunion. There was also a family from Melbourne.
Back at the camp we had dinner by candlelight on the verandah and then were escorted back to our tent where we fumbled around with limited lighting. The generator only runs for a few hours each day, enough to keep the batteries charged. It was still hot but the fan kept us cool until we fell asleep and the fan ran out of battery.