Oct 4-7: Samburu region

 This part of the trip was the best in some ways, and the hardest in others. 

Best: bed, lodging setup, hangout area, pool, food, staff. We stayed in a tent camp up on stilts in trees! I could watch giraffes and elephants wander through beneath me at ground level. My bed was super comfy and the sunrise view was gorgeous.

Hard: so so so dry. It’s a dry part of the country anyway, and they’ve had two years of severe drought. Our lodging had to truck in water for us, and told is that hot showers weren’t really available - we’d have to run (waste!) a lot of water before we got hot. Everything was brown and dry and a lot of the language of our game drives was about what they used to see and experience. 

Still, the people were absolutely lovely, and they did put water in troughs for animals so we regularly saw an elephant herd visit. I felt conflicted about the fact that they had a (not enormous) pool - obviously not the best use of a scarce resource… yet part of getting in those sweet sweet tourist dollars. In the end I took micro showers, tipped well, and tried to be a good guest. 

My favorite memory is after dinner on our final night  one of my travel companions made friends with the staff members, and he asked them to write in his travel journal. Two of them each wrote a folk tale from their culture in his book, and then he read us one of the stories by candlelight. It was very lovely.

I really hope to go back someday when they’ve had rain. If that day ever comes.