Jeffres'Notes: Visiting Kenya: Special Trek into Bush and Birds at Samburu

While at Samburu there were a couple of leisure-time options for the afternoon. One was a camel ride across the river on which the lodge was located. A second was a "nature walk" outside the compound, the option I chose with a couple other travelers.

If I recall correctly the lady with the longest legs and the lady with the shortest legs rode the camel...so getting on and off was an experience. A spotter watched along the river bank to be sure there were no croc's in the neighborhood while the camel crossed.

This croc was further down or up stream so I know there were there.

We began our walk, and the guide noted that an elephant had been inside the compound the night before because the skull near the entrance had been moved.

Off we walked, with an armed ranger in front.

The ranger was more than useful since we ran into a family of elephants along the river and one bull was on our side of the river, just on the other side of the tree. The wind was in our direction so they couldn't smell us and we took photos and retreated to the bush.

Our guide and the ranger were most knowledgeable, explaining everything from the use of trees' bark as sandpaper and as toilet paper (mix those up and you're in trouble), other parts as toothpicks, what animal left what poop or footprints, etc.

We went into a dry area that lions would be less likely to frequent in search of ostriches that might be there. We were not to see a living ostrich until the next day, but we did run across these ostrich feathers of one that probably was eaten by a lion, so s/he miscalculated too.

Finally, I'm going to end this installment with a selection of birds, only one of which I can easily identify correctly....the Helmuter guinea fowl, which, I've eaten on two occasions (in Budapest and Montreal). Also saw the golden breasted starling, the white browed sparrow weaver, the chestnut billed grouse, the Kori bustard (heaviest flying bird), the secretary bird (a snake hunter), the mashalego, the Frinch cotton bush, the yellow-necked spurfowl, the red billed hornbill, the white billed go-way-bird, the red billed hornbill, the superb starling, the tawny eagle, Egyptian geese, the grey-crowned crane....and more. Our guides seem to be able to identify anything flying (or walking), and several travelers had guide books with photos and ID for animals and birds.