Located 5 degrees N of the equator in the Sarara valley on 859,000 acres, the Samburu Bush Camp is our new home for 3 nights. It’s actually 8 treehouses built above the jungle floor, with walkways combining the treehouses with the main lodge. …and small enough to be EXTREMELY personal. 84 actual STEPS 😫to our “tree tent” not counting the flat walkways…challenging for me but great exercise. The Camp has only been open 4 years, so the facilities are very new and impressive. The Bastard (Yelp that’s spelled correctly) family built the Lodge and donated it to the community and all the staff live locally. This is one of the most “unique” places I’ve ever visited. Waking up to all the jungles noises…monkeys screaming, birds singing and elephants drinking at the waterhole…it really hard to beat! Plus your wake up call is the delivery of your coffee, tea or hot chocolate😍 After dark, as you descend from the main lodge to your tenthouse, you encounter several armed guards along the walkways to “protect the animals”🥹 I’m gonna also add…I think this camp has the best food so far. The beef was outstanding…and presentation impressive.

I have to give many thanks to my personal escort, Lodo, who although the smallest warrior in the camp, he was extremely strong and held my hand each night to help me down the multitude of steps and then went inside our tent to turn on lights, close curtains and confirm no wildlife (primarily monkeys😜) had not managed to get inside. He was very protective of me throughout the visit constantly fixing me a JGL with just the right amount of lime…or pouring me a tall glass of red wine….Thus me needing a balancing escort at times😉

The Samburu tribe dress much more ornate, especially with beaded collars, headbands, and multitude of bracelets… but their customs are very similar to the Maasai…They circumcise their males around 15 years old, then they are allowed to marry only after serving as “protective” warriors until around 27 years old. They are also polygamists, but not allowed more than 4 wives. If a man has only one wife, then the villagers think he’s not strong… first wife is usually arranged, …the second might be for love and/or just as additional help with the children and many responsibilities. The man does have sex with all his wives (as long as they are old enough to have children) and whichever hut they place their sword in that day, will be the chosen wife for sex that night. There is no jealousy among wives, they welcome the help.

Samburu don’t know their age…and don’t celebrate a birthday. If your husband dies, you must remove one of your permanent earrings…you can live with another man BUT can’t re-marry. The brother of your late husband is responsible for you. The Sarara Foundation pays for children to go to Montessori schools…trying to educate the next generations.

I think my favorite excursion of the entire trip (so far) was to the SINGING WELLS…located within the Namunyak Wildlife Conservation Trust….no photos allowed (but you can watch a utube video). With water such a precious resource in this desolate land….during dry season, the warriors dedicate the day to digging deep wells for drinking water for their livestock. We watched as the tall, muscular warriors (some striped naked), formed a human chain to descend into the well and begin singing …while passing up buckets of water to fill troughs carved from a tree trunk for the animals to drink from, then filling buckets for bathing and doing laundry, and finally filling large barrels to load on the donkeys and take home for drinking water and cooking. As a song rises up, the cattle respond by coming to drink when it is ‘their’ song. When the warriors think that those cattle have drunk their fill, the song changes and another group of cattle or goats come to quench their thirst. These Singing Wells in the Sarara Camp is the only place in the world you can experience this cultural tradition. It’s extremely spiritual & emotional as they are chanting continuous blessings including the names of their brothers and ancestors. Watching the faces of the warriors, you can see the PRIDE shine in their eyes. You leave with a feeling of admiration for these young men and their families who work so devotedly to carrying on their culture and traditions. The first thought as I walked away with tears in my eyes….if only every American could be privileged enough to witness this tradition, our society would be saved. Unfortunately, the America I grew up in no longer exists. In our daily lives, we often forget how blessed we are, and take our freedom and lifestyle for granted. Enough preaching. Moving on…

We were treated to a “beading and bitch” session at our Camp with the local women…where we exchanged information with a staffer as our interpreter. They made us each a bracelet or anklet with colors of our choosing, while we quizzed them about their daily chores and lives. ..and they expressed their curiosity about our children and wanting see pictures. Their beading skills were outstanding and we purchased many of their items for sale.

Later that day, a blacksmith came for a demonstration of how he made swords, knives, bracelets, etc from melted aluminum. I didn’t get to stay long as my massage was calling, but the group purchased several interesting items to take home, including a beautiful carved sword Darlin (new name we gave Darrin as his name was misspelled on his water bottle) was lucky to purchased.

Next day, we visited the Rafiki Sanctuary which opened in 2016. They currently have 46 baby elephants they have rescued. If they are 4 years or older and healthy, they are released immediately back into wild because they can survive…but the camp staff put a collar on them so they can keep tracking them and make sure they are ok. Otherwise, they go to the Sanctuary and don’t get released until age 7 when they are able to live on their own in the wild. Inside the sanctuary, they get a bottle every 3 hours…the camp buys 800 liters of goat’s milk every day.
Baby elephants can sleep laying down, but adult elephants can NOT …they must sleep standing up…Only sleeping 3-4 hrs a day.

✔️Elephants are born with 6 sets of molars… 1 set falls out every 10 years so by the age of 60 with no teeth, they die of starvation😂 Elephants communicate thru vibrations they feel thru their feet, and they use their trunks by kissing to identify their family members. Females are the leaders (one group of mammals that got it right)and boy elephants at age 7 have to go outside the family to live.

✔️Kudus – 2 types Greater & Lesser… we saw the Lesser (smaller) they have grey stripes around their bellies. The Greater is much larger and brown with stripes.

✔️Reticulated giraffe – The spots on Maasai and reticulated giraffes are vastly different. Masai giraffes have rather unpredictable, very deep brown spots that closely resemble oak leaves. These ragged spots are a major contrast to those of reticulated giraffes, which are slightly lighter brown in color and shaped very similarly to polygons — with straight, smooth sides…. Extremely well defined spots.

During our final night “sundowner” , we had an amazing campfire in a ridge close to the Camp….and after an hour of teaching the Samburu warriors how to dance “our way”, and Lolly teaching her guide, Eon, how to 2 step…we were in the total dark admiring the bright stars and constellations, when all of a sudden, a string of lights in the sky crossed over us .. it was the launch of the new set of Starlink satellites. Being in the right place at the right time…on top of mountain ridge in Kenya Africa..it doesn’t get any better than this!

Heading to our 5th and final camp tomorrow, but sad to be leaving this little paradise in the Bush. A special thank you to Carrie, the manager, an excellent staff and our entertaining guides.

P.S. upon fact checking our guide at the previous camp, we learned that crocodiles do not live 300 years… But more commonly only 70 years. Sorry for the misinformation… they say if it sounds too good to be true, it usually isn’t. 🙃