Sasaab…….The Land of the Samburu

Ian is our pilot this morning, and we take off from the Solio private grassy airstrip, heading north over the mountains, crossing the equator, and will land at the Sasaab Camp airstrip, one of the sketchiest we have seen so far, but all goes well. As we are all wearing headsets, Ian is able to tell us about all things interesting on the ground. Kenya produces huge amounts of flowers for the European marketplace, mostly roses, and the greenhouse complexes we see are massive……..acres and acres under roof. He also points out Samburu villages with their distinct circular thorny bush perimeters, and we look forward to seeing those up close in the next couple of days.

Take off from Solio……co-pilot Hugh…..landing at Sasaab Camp and our new Samburu guides Ken and Ben

The Samburu are a semi-nomadic sub tribe of the Maasai populating mostly north central Kenya, and are rich in customs and tradition. They run livestock……cows mostly they say, but we saw a shitload of goats, and some sheep also, grazing them usually twice daily away from the villages before bringing them home every evening for safety. We would learn a lot more about their life and customs while at Sasaab.

The camp complex has nine rooms……..you guessed it, we are in #8-9 all the way down the bank of the Ewaso Nyiro River……..farthest room from the lodge, and I counted, 73 steps, and a lot of steep uphill walkway from our front door to my stool at the bar. We would make this trip many times. This screen shot shows our room, the closest one to the river, a tented room totally open to the outdoors if you open the screens. The lodge is at the top of the hill where the driveway comes in and although we have our own small pool, there is a larger one located just next to the spa building……..feel like going for a dip most days on the way up.

The Samburu spear stuck in the ground to the left side of our entrance means it is ok to approach…….if the spear is moved to the right side of the door it means buggar off, we’re messing around.

The official welcoming committee

Jutta and I kind of throw a wrench into the works when we arrived as we had no interest in going out on another game drive right away, while the lodge expected we would. It was time to kick back and enjoy our room on the river, and just take a breath for a second. No worries, we enjoyed the scenery, and made the climb up for dinner later on. Kath and Jim whom we met at Giraffe Manor were there, so we had a fun dinner with them before being escorted back to the room by an armed guard. Lots of guns around this place.

Living room, bedroom, deck, pool

We arrange to go on a hike tomorrow morning rather than a game drive using the truck. I think we have been bounced around enough, and just need a break. They decide to split up our guides, sending Ken with the other couple we were scheduled to ride with, and we will walk with Ben. You can’t just go for a casual walk in this part of town, or at least they won’t let you. We have an armed guard with us…….can’t remember his name for sure, but it could be Ralph (like none of these names are for real, it’s only for our benefit they take on simple English names), he is Samburu also and a great guy to have along. The AK47 he is carrying is actually quite comforting.

So Jutta and I look like hiker Joe’s with our Columbia/North Face gear and shoes, and these guys are walking around in sandals like it’s a Saturday afternoon in the park. It doesn’t take long to figure out that the walk was a brilliant idea, as Ben and Ralph are pointing out trees and bushes the Samburu use for healing……..they don’t use traditional methods, and still have healers, or medicine men. The leaves of this tree are mulched up mixed with water and will cure a digestive problem, this is a wild mint bush, the sticky substance on this bush is what we use for gum when out on a long walk, the branches of this bush are what we use as a toothbrush (I still have mine)…….amazing info you would never get in the back of a truck looking for game.

We come across a dried up river bed and start walking it towards the main river…….tons of tracks in the sand including leopard………woooooooh. The picture above is a well which was installed for a lion conservation camp a short distance away. Ben noted that when the rains came, this river bed would be full of water, feeding the main river just downstream. We walked for almost two hours away from the camp, and I was happy to find out there was a quick way home. This was a great alternative to the game drive. We still found some wildlife.

Back at the room, we had a dip and were getting ready to go and say goodbye to Kath and Jimmy, when we spotted a few elephants entering the river downstream from camp……then a few more, then a few more, then the river was full of elephants. What a sight. I called it in on the radio to the main lodge, and would hear about that later from Ken and Ben.

Apparently this was only half the herd……..probably 100 in total which is a fairly rare sighting.

We said our goodbyes to Kath and Jimmy…….great couple that I know we will meet again, and discussed activities for this evening and tomorrow with the crew. Sundowners tonight at a beautiful spot, and tomorrow we have scheduled a warrior dance by the Samburu. Sometimes guests at camp are treated to this type of performance as there might be a wedding or celebration going on, but we are not so lucky. The warriors are happy to dance for us for a small fee…….worth every penny we would find out.

Our trip to the sundowner spot was about an hour in the truck, and then we hiked up a large rock plateau to catch the view. Just stunning.

This kudu was blocking our trail, so he had to be coaxed out of the way.