Samburu National Park Game Drives

Later in the afternoon, we had another game drive. Samburu National Park is a very dry region, with scrubby, thorny vegetation.

In this picture, you can see an umbrella acacia tree, with lots of weaver nests hanging from it.

Samburu contained some very attractive birds, including this yellow-billed hornbill.

Red-billed hornbill

yellow-necked spur fowl

The gerenuk (giraffe-necked antelope) was very common at Samburu.
Here one is in the classic pose of standing on its hind legs to reach higher branches.

The dik-dik is a very small type of antelope. The tiny horns on its head are so cute.

There were quite a few impala

including this mother and her two young ones.

There were also other antelope present.

Another animal that was unique to the Samburu area was the Beisa Oryx.

Unfortunately, they weren't particularly cooperative for getting a picture from the front.

This jackal apparently took posing tips from the oryx. Every time I got her in focus, she would turn her back and walk away from me.
This hare was only slightly more cooperative.

Towards the end of the afternoon, we were losing daylight, but spotted this young male lion. He walked away, and crouched down at the perfect angle to the sun for a fabulous picture. I had him perfectly centered, and thought to myself "smile pretty".

He returned that thought with a giant roar and a lunge toward me. I let out a startled scream and Thomas - our driver - hit the gas! Then he told me to close my windows (but we could still keep the pop top open). The lion was not happy with all the paparazzi as he was surrounded by multiple safari vans. He kept trying to walk away, and was basically stalked by the vans. I expressed my concerns that I felt sorry for the lion and perhaps we should leave it alone, but it fell on deaf ears. I'm sure the lion was extremely happy a few minutes later when all the vans had to retreat because the park was closing for the night!

Later that evening, crocodiles climbed up the river banks near the lodge.
It was quite the thrill to look inside a croc's mouth!

The next morning, I took a short stroll around the lodge grounds before breakfast.
This colorful lizard was getting his start first thing in the morning.
I also spotted this waterbuck on the other side of the river.
And this hadada ibis enjoying a morning preen.

Before leaving, we had another short game drive. Right away, we saw two lions on the hillside.


They were quite a ways away and the Sun was behind them, which made it difficult to get a good picture.
At least this time, the herd of minivans was further away and stood still, rather than chasing them.
On the way out of Samburu, we finally got a close look at the Grevy's Zebras. The stripes on these zebras are narrower and closer together than the regular plains zebra. The ears are also larger and rounder.

This zebra decided to start the morning off with a nice dust bath.



Next Stop....Aberdare National Park