Kenya's National Parks and Reserves

Samburu National Park

Samburu National Park is situated in the hot arid northern region of Kenya 325km's (201.9 miles) from Nairobi, 90km's (55.9 miles) north of Mount Kenya.  The park covers an area of 165 sq kilometres.  The Ewaso Ngiro River, which rises in the Aberdares runs through the park resulting in a permanent water source.
While the wildlife experience in Samburu is not as exciting as many of the southern parks, Samburu's scenic beauty more than makes up for this.  Due to the constant abundance of water the banks of the river are lined with rich riverine woodland vegetation.  Acacia woodland with bushland, grassland and scrubland all occur in this region.

The reserve is home to a number of animal species rarely found elsewhere.  Among these are the Grevy's zebra, reticulated Giraffe, Somali Ostrich, gerenuk and the Beisa Oryx, all of which are only found north of the equator.  Samburu's birdlife is diverse and prolific.  Crocodiles occur in abundance and can be seen at virtually every bend on the Ewaso Ngiro River's sand banks.  Further downstream where permanent pools have formed, hippo's are a common sight.  Elephants roam the scrubland regions and seek solace in the shallow waters of the Ewaso Ngiro. Due to poaching, Rhino sadly no longer occurs in the reserve.

Tsavo National Park

At 21,000 sq km, this is Kenya's largest park by far, but much of the eastern section is closed to the public.  Most of the land is open savannah and bush woodlands inhabited by Buffalo, Lion, Antelope, Gazelles, Giraffe and Zebra.  Despite a drastic fall in the elephant population in the 1970's there are still many large herds. Tsavo is a combination of dramatic escarpment landscapes combined with the raw, untamed flavour of one of Africa's great wilderness areas.

Mzima Springs, in Tsavo East, is one of the best places to watch crocodile and hippo. Here, crystal clear water bubbles out of the ground at a rate of 500-million litres (110-million gallons) a day. The spring is fed by snow melt off Mount Kilimanjaro, and a pipeline from the springs provides Mombasa with a large portion of its drinking water. A distinctive feature of Mzima is an underwater glass cage built by a wildlife film crew. Here you can descend a set of stairs, and encased in a glass hide, watch shoals of tilapia, and the occasional Crocodile or Hippo glide by.