NEW FRIENDS AND HAPPY PLACES

Hello there,

It has been a minute but not too long I hope. I don’t wan t to make excuses today so lets get right into it. In 2015 I made a terrible mistake ( story for another day) but in all that mess I met a great girl who was to become my friend (also story for another day). Through this friend, I met another friend who was super excited about running the LEWA marathon 2017. We had only met virtually but we agreed that we would hang out after the marathon. So I found myself on the road to Isiolo very early Sunday morning ready for an adventure to unknown destinations with a person I had never met.

Isiolo is the last town you would expect to find a traffic jam but on this day, a Sunday, the traffic was probably worse than that of the great Nairobi. The same happened when I was going to Marsabit ( read about that here). Maybe Isiolo doesn’t want me to drive through too fast. So here I was with two complete strangers headed to destination unknown in the great Samburu county. We made our way to Buffalo springs national reserve and went straight to the swimming pool at Samburu Simba lodge.

I don’t know about you but this is a perfect spot to spend a day, say on a blind date and have conversations with even more strangers who are on vacation from different parts of the world. What made it even better is that we did not have to take a game drive to look for the wildlife… wildlife came to us.

Elephants vs baboons

Those who know me know I love elephants so having a herd of elephants grazing by the pool must have been the highlight of my day. I witnessed an elephant bullying a grevy zebra and I thought it was being mean but turns out it had a little calf probably less that two months. I am no expert in estimating wildlife’s age but it was really tiny.

On the way out, I was lucky to see a number of oryx (by the way what is the proper name for it?) It is one of the species that are only found in arid parts of Africa above the equator.

we also made a stop at the springs which are weirdly clean despite the fact that there is no visible outlet. Unfortunately I was too focused on taking photos of me and my now friends (no longer blind dates) that I forgot to take a picture of the springs.

Snapshot

Buffalo springs national reserve is located between Isiolo and Archers post and is managed by the county government of Samburu Entrance fee is Kes. 500.00 for Kenyan citizens You can also access Samburu national reserve from here without having to pay park entrance fee again There is a variety of lodges to choose from for meals and swimming… we were at the Samburu Simba lodge You will need a 4WD… the roads are quite rough.

We had an amazing experience there and I would totally recommend it. Samburu is waiting for you.

Until next time, go find your adventure, tembea Kenya and don’t be afraid to go on adventurous blind dates… It could turn out to be your best day.

A big thank you to Maryanne, Tom and Christine. you made my day!