After our breakfast in the Ol Pajeta house we bid farewell to the staff and headed north to Samburu. That morning Murthy was surprised at seeing a couple hadada ibises in the back lawn of the lodge. I managed to get a couple good photos. Later Prasanna spotted a warthog running across the lawn. Sundar later spotted a female saddle-billed stork – very colorfully painted face and beak and a large bird at that!!

A three hour drive brought us to the Samburu wildlife refuge. The overall lay of the land was different and very dry & desert like. The lady I bought a chain for Rasan said the shark tooth like pendant was made of camel bone. I was surprised by that revelation but she said we will find them in Samburu. We saw camels along the way at the entrance of the refuge!! The lodge was beautiful and reminded us of Tahiri Amazon lodge. It was on an elevated platform and made of local wood and thatched roof. After our welcome drink we settled down for a sumptuous lunch. After an hours rest post-lunch and we were ready for our evening game drive.

The highlight of the safari was spotting a leopard behind a rocky formation as we were ready to wind down our safari. It was tough to spot but we finally got to see all the big five – elephant, bison, rhino, lion and leopard!! This was just our second day safari 😄

Here is a list of birds and animals we saw today:

Morning at Ol Pejeta:
Hadada ibis
Warthog
Female Saddle-billed stork
Crowned hornbill
Ring-necked dove

On our way to Samburu:
Lovebird or parrot
Saddle-billed stork flying
Camels
Water buck
Vervet monkey (black faced)
Reticulated giraffe
Oryx
Grevy’s zebra
Donkeys
Cattle with Samburu cattle herders at the river
Usambiro barbet
Culturing Guinea fowl
Grants gazelle
Von der Decken’s Hornbills (male and female)
Red-billed hornbill

At the lodge:
Chestnut-billed King fisher

Afternoon safari:
Pallid harrier (hawk with yellow legs)
African white-backed vulture
Yellow-necked Spurfowl
Kirk’s Dik-dik
Von der Decken’s Hornbills (male and female)
Unidentifiable bird – all white, black beak and yellow tail
Grant’s gazelle
Gerenuk – giraffe like long neck deer
Warthog
Baboons
Elephants
Two Lionesses resting by the bush near the river
Leopard well camouflaged among the rocks – luckily got up for us to get some decent photos