Samburu National Reserve

Samburu National Reserve is one of Kenya's most celebrated and distinctive wildlife destinations — a 165-square-kilometre sanctuary in the semi-arid north of the country that offers a safari experience fundamentally different from anything available in Kenya's southern parks. The reserve occupies both banks of the Ewaso Ng'iro River — the 'river of brown water' — in Samburu County, its shoreline fringed with ancient doum palms, yellow-barked fever trees, and dense riparian forest that creates an oasis of life in an otherwise parched landscape. The reserve is renowned for the 'Samburu Special Five' — five northern-specialist species that are either absent or very rare in southern Kenya's national parks: reticulated giraffe, Grevy's zebra, Beisa oryx, Somali ostrich, and the extraordinary gerenuk, the 'giraffe gazelle' that feeds standing fully upright on its hind legs. The Ewaso Ng'iro River is the reserve's defining ecological feature, attracting enormous concentrations of wildlife — particularly elephant herds that come to drink and bathe — and supporting resident populations of large Nile crocodiles and hippos. The reserve has been the setting for numerous acclaimed wildlife films and is the ancestral homeland of the Samburu people, whose distinctive culture and beadwork traditions add a rich human dimension to any visit.