Ol Pejeta and Samburu, 5th - 12th March 2016

[TonyQ]

Superb photos - very beautiful.

And then your leopard encounter - stunning portrait followed by wonderful action

[Marks]

Some of the best bee-eaters I've seen, which is saying something on this forum. Well done!

[Ben mosquito]

Outstanding photos Gregor, your leopards make my day. It's a high level trip report.

 

 

 

I will for sure come back to Samburu

 

 

Welcome to the Samburu lover's club.

Samburu is dusty, far from Nairobi but it's worth a try.

[deano]

@@Gregor - brilliant stuff. Apologies for being late to the party but that image of the impalas in #32 is fantastic and I agree with all who posted comments about post #42 in general - fantastic detail in all the birds but particularly the white throated bee eater and then the barbet - wow! And then you capped it off with that leopard sequence...you have every reason to be pleased with those with the first and last two in particular catching my eye. Thanks again for including the aperture and shutter speed etc. I find it really helpful although if I dial in the same settings in similar conditions I am unlikely to get images as good as these. I am just experimenting with manual now with auto iso and hoping to get some half decent images...practice makes perfect.

 

kind regards

 

deano.

[Gregor]

Day 7, 11th March

 

Thank you everyone for your comments. Last day was a memorable safari day.

 

We start of this morning in wonderful light and a Beisa oryx.

 

 

Same oryx with, I think, Mount Kenya in the background.

 

 

As you know I love the bee-eaters, there is always room for another picture of them.

 

 

This African Orange-bellied Parrot was to me the sighting of the day. Very striking and colorful bird.

 

 

The very common Grey-headed Kingfisher

 

 

Another white throated Bee-eater. They are everywhere in Samburu, lot´s of possibilities to get good photos of them.

 

 

I had only one sighting of the Somali Bee-eater, this one.

 

 

A Black-cheasted Snake-Eagle

 

 

Secretary bird

 

 

Golden Pipit

 

 

Somali Ostrich with chicks.

 

 

 

I so much like the dry, semi-desert varied landscape of Samburu. Gravy´s Zebra.

 

 

Buff-crested Bustard

 

 

Yes, them again.

 

 

Classic posé of Gerenuk

 

 

This was not a spectacular day like yesterday. But a good one and I´m happy about the Parrot.

[Atravelynn]

It was a fortunate parrot sighting along with the "them again" bee eaters.

[michael-ibk]

The Golden Pipit is a stunning bird. Interesting that White-Throated Bee-Eaters were all over Samburu for you, I didn´t see a single one in September (2014).

[Marks]

I also like the "them again" photo!

[SafariChick]

Fabulous bird photos and the leopards are just fantastic!

[optig]

@@Gregor I love all your bird photos, the photo of the parrot in particular was just awesome.

[Safaridude]

@@Gregor

 

Really excellent bird photos… and you managed to get many of them in action!

[Gregor]

Day 8, 12th March

 

Early morning I got another Buff-crested Bustard

 

 

dÁrnaud´s Barbet. What is lovely is that small green leaves that start growing so fast after the rain. Desert really comes a live.

 

 

Some reptile. But lovely colors I think.

 

 

A larger reptile, the monitor lizard out walking. I wonder if they could be catched by a large eagle.

 

 

I think a Reticulated Giraffe

 

 

The beautiful Vulturine Guineafowl

 

 

And last but not lest a sunbathing crocodile in Ewaso Ngiron river.

 

 

My thoughts of this trip is that I found Both Ol Pejeta and Samburu to be places very well worth visiting. Ol Pejeta is fantastic for it´s Rhinos. Samburu is more wild and I love it´s semi desert landscape. To me Samburu was new and had something different to offer than what I have experiences on previous safaris. Samburu will bo on my short list for places to go back to

[Hads]

@@Gregor a truly amazing TR and classic photos.

[gagan]

Amazing pictures ...nanyuki town offers so much..i always wanted to go there to do 2 night camping.They offer lion tracking,walking safari and night game drive too.Also animal orphanage close to mt kenyan slope is good to visit too.

[Kitsafari]

@@Gregor I'm not sure where i'd been but probably hiding under a rock since I missed your entire TR. but reading it and enjoying the beautiful photos more than made up for my "earlier" loss. Love the leopard sparring scenes and all those jewels of the air - all the birds.

[pauln]

@@Gregor The photos are very beautiful and you were very lucky during your safari adventure. Greatly enjoyed the leopards playing/fighting and all the birds photos.

[AfricanQueen]

@@Gregor Such a pleasure to see your pictures! I love every single one and it really made my day looking at them again and again!

[mapumbo]

Some of the most interesting leopard photos. I wonder if the mother was trying to wean her cub?

Thank you for the post. We also had heavy rain in Samburu when we visited a decade or more ago,

[Gregor]

@@mapumbo

 

Yes, the mother was starting to wean her cub off. Thanks for reading.