After almost 6 months of being away, I returned to Samburu in January to begin my PhD fieldwork.
After more than a month of great anxiety, sadness and stress in Nairobi due to the post-election violence, I was finally able to leave for Samburu on the 18th of January. We left at 6:15 am and I drove in convoy with another researcher. My new car, named “Gypsy” had only done 160 kms and this would be the first long drive. Not far from Nairobi, it began to pour with rain and this continued almost all the way to Nanyuki. It was throwing it down and made driving harder.
Finally in Nanyuki and we had a glimpse of sunshine as I did a few errands. Soon after leaving, more rain. The usual spectacular vista from Kisima was covered in cloud. One could normally see the Samburu hills from here, but not this time. Raining in Samburu in January? This was not usual.
We finally got to Isiolo and built up enough courage for the last part of the journey – the road from Isiolo to Ngare Mara Gate. I drove really slowly trying to avoid the corrugation and huge mud holes. It was not so bad for the first 20 minutes but soon after the road fell apart and it was very very hard going. This was the worst journey I had made on this road (I’ve driven it more than 100 times). It was very hard to even see the mud holes and I was literally driving at 10 kph. Finally – the turn off to Ngare Mara! But the worst was not over. Buffalo Springs and Ngare Mara had experienced torrential rain for 3 days. I had to drive through massive pools of water; I felt like Gypsy was swimming at times.
The reserve was covered in water and Isiolo River was flowing fast. This was a bit nerve-wracking trying to cross it, as I could not see where the bridge ended and the river started. Using intuition, I drove across, with the river flowing across the car. Finally through!
I didn’t see much game; only some buffalo and gerenuk. Where were the elephants? Well, apparently 3 days of rain had pushed them off. As we approached camp, we were soo fortunate to see 2 cheetahs! This was a good sign for sure. The cheetahs were in fantastic condition and looked so healthy. They were sitting on the main road which is unusual for cheetahs in that specific area due to the vehicle traffic. However, it later became apparent that there are just no vehicles in the reserves at all. Tourism is at an all time low due to the country’s chaos. En route to Samburu, I saw 2 mini-buses in total. Normally, I’d see at close to 50-60 cars returning from or heading to Samburu.
We got to camp 8 hrs after setting out from Nairobi and I settled into my new tent. It is great to be back! I went out this morning (19th Jan) and for the first few hours, did not see an animal or a car! The bird life was prolific however and there were large ants everywhere. I finally saw some lion tracks and got very excited but was unable to find them. Eventually, on the way back to the camp, I saw a leopard! It was a stunning leopard who was very active. There were 4 other vehicles here and that was it. Normally, there would have been 40 vehicles.
The reserves are so beautiful. It had been very dry but this unusual rainy spell has provided relief to the parched landscape and green bushes are emerging. The prey have dispersed and seems the lions too. Only time will tell when I will see them.
More field updates to come soon!