SAMBURU NATIONAL RESERVE

The first thing you'll notice on a Samburu safari is that it is worlds apart from the other parks in Kenya. It's not particularly well-known and as a result is less crowded than most Kenyan reserves.
The Samburu National Reserve is located on the banks of the Ewaso Ng'iro river in Kenya; on the other side of the river is the Buffalo Springs National Reserve in Northern Kenya. It is 165 km² in size and 350 kilometers from Nairobi. Geographically, it is located in Samburu District of the Rift Valley Province.
In the middle of the reserve, the Ewaso Ng'iro flows through doum palm groves and thick riverine forests that provides water without which the game in the reserve could not survive in the arid country.
The Samburu National Reserve was one of the two areas in which conservationists George Adamson and Joy Adamson raised Elsa the Lioness made famous in the best selling book and award winning movie Born Free.
The Samburu National Reserve is also the home of Kamunyak, a lioness famous for adopting oryx calves.
Samburu National Reserve can be entered via the Ngare Mare and Buffalo Springs gates. Once inside the reserve, there are two mountains visible: Koitogor and Ololokwe. Samburu National Reserve is very peaceful and attracts animals because of the Uaso Nyiro River (meaning "brown water" and pronounced U-aa-so-Nyee-ro) that runs through it and the mixture of acacia, riverine forest, thorn trees and grassland vegetation. The Uaso Nyiro flows from the Kenyan highlands and empties into the famous Lorian Swamp. The natural serenity that is evident here is due to its distance from industry and the inaccessibility of the reserve for many years.
There is a wide variety of animal and bird life seen at Samburu National Reserve. Several species are considered unique to the region, including its ts unique dry-country animal life: All three big cats, Lion, Cheetah and Leopard, can be found here, as well as Elephants, Buffalos and Hippos.
Samburu boasts the most unusual fauna of all East Africa’s major savannah reserves. There is the densely striped Grevy’s zebra (twice as heavy as the more familiar Burchell’s zebra), the Reticulated giraffe (neat, geometrically marked coat), the regal Beisa oryx and a comically long-horned race of the Grant’s gazelle. The most unique of them all is the Gerenuk or antelope giraffe, distinguished by its extraordinarily distended neck and freakishly small head. It also possesses a unique manner of feeding, standing near-erect on its hind legs to stretch two metres above the ground and nibble on the leaves that other browsers can’t reach.
There are over 350 species of bird. These include Somali Ostrich, Kingfisher, Sunbird, Bee-eater, Marabou Stork, Tawny Eagle, Bateleur, Guinea fowl and Vultures.
The Uaso Nyiro River contains large numbers of Nile crocodile.
Some of the camps and lodges to stay in include Samburu Serena Safari Lodge, Joy’s Camp, Sarova Shaba Game Lodge, Sopa Lodge, Samburu game Lodge among others.