The Safari Begins at Samburu (August 23-29)

What better way to celebrate being 42 than to go on an African Safari!

The first day of the safari began with a 5 hour drive from Nairobi to Samburu Namtional Reserve. On the way, we stopped at a curio shop. Before leaving home, I had decided to buy a few more souvenirs than I normally would - in order to support the local economy. What I wasn't prepared to do was pay extreme prices. I know bargaining is part of the deal, but when prices for something worth $25 start out at over $500, the process isn't even fun! I got the prices for a couple of batik "paintings" down to a reasonable amount (although still a bit overpriced) and bought those.

We stopped at a gas station to fill the tank at Isiolo, the last town on the main road before hitting the gravel road and driving north to Samburu. I got out of the van to stretch while Crystal ran off to find ice cream bars. A man started talking to me about Barack Obama: what a great leader he was; how Kenya was proud of him; what did the US citizens think of him; and if I was planning to vote for him. At first I thought he was just a friendly guy. Then his friend joined him, claiming he was from Obama's home town and was collecting money to support Obama. Then the original guy tried to sell (for $100 USD!!!) a crinkled old newspaper clipping of Obama that he had in his pocket. Crystal returned - without ice cream, but had a coke and popcorn - and suddenly the van was surrounded by people trying to sell us stuff - rusty looking bracelets, knives, newspaper clippings, etc. We were practically slamming doors and windows as people were reaching in the van all around us, shoving their wares at us. It was NOT FUN!!!!

After a long drive on bumpy gravel roads, we finally arrived at Samburu Game Reserve. As we entered, we were met by our first sighting of wildlife - the reticulated giraffe.

Our safari vehicle was a pop-top minivan.
This picture gives you an idea of how close we were to some of the wildlife.

A cluster of mutant conjoined twin giraffes?

We were also met by elephants grazing right off the side of the road.
It was an exciting feeling being so close to a wild elephant.

After a short drive to observe some of the wildlife, we arrived at Samburu Lodge for lunch and to check in. Throughout our lunch, a Samburu warrior in costume kept "informing" us that the cultural show was about to start. We were hungry, tired from driving, and just wanted to have a relaxing lunch. The last thing we wanted to do was to rush off to a show. We wanted to see it even less when he kept harassing us about it. Several times we had to ask him to let us eat in peace and that we would go to the show if we wanted once we finished lunch.

After lunch, we decided that we would rather watch the elephants in the river than head to the cultural show. He kept harassing us. Then we decided to take pictures of the vervet monkeys that were playing in the trees around the lodge.

Oh no! We couldn't actually enjoy ourselves. We HAD to go to the cultural show! It was a MUST! How else would they extract an additional 500 KSH (about $8 USD) out of our pocket?

So the Samburu warrior threw stones at the monkeys close to the lodge and pulled out his slingshot to hit the monkeys closer to the river. Needless to say, we were very upset by this behavior. We could understand keeping the monkeys out of the restaurant and the lobby of the lodge, but not hitting them when they were playing happily in the trees. We were at the point where you couldn't pay us to see the Samburu cultural show if this warrior represented their culture! We skipped the cultural show and went to our room to relax before the afternoon game drive.