Kenya: Amboseli vs Samburu ?

Hi.
Has anyone been to Amboseli and Samburu and share any comments?
We're planning to join a camping safari but are having to choose
between two.
Thx.
Dana.

In message
(Dana) wrote:

Hi.
Has anyone been to Amboseli and Samburu and share any comments?
We're planning to join a camping safari but are having to choose
between two.
Thx.
Dana.
Pity to have to choose, but it really depends where else you'll be going.

Normally, for a balance, choose Samburu, you'll see animals and birds there
which you are unlikely to see anywhere else. Samburu/Buffalo Springs/Shaba
is our favourite place, and every safari driver/guide we've ever asked said
Samburu is their favourite.
http://www.v-liz.com/safari/samburua/samb_a.htm
(19 pages, plus 14 of a Samburu village)
A final advantage is that Samburu/Buffalo Springs gives you your best chance
in Kenya of seeing Leopard.

Amboseli is also superb, though.
http://www.v-liz.com/safari/amboseli/amb_a.htm (7 pages)

Whichever you choose, you'll love it.
....and you can always go back again...

Safari njema.

Slainte

Liz

--
Virtual Liz now at http://www.v-liz.com
Kenya; Tanzania; Namibia; India; Seychelles; Galapagos
"I speak of Africa and golden joys"

In message
Liz wrote:

http://www.v-liz.com/safari/samburua/samb_a.htm
(19 pages, plus 14 of a Samburu village)
Except that it's
http://www.v-liz.com/safari/samburu/samburua/samb_a.htm
Still can't type a URI first time!
Sorry

Slainte

Liz

--
Virtual Liz now at http://www.v-liz.com
Kenya; Tanzania; Namibia; India; Seychelles; Galapagos
"I speak of Africa and golden joys"

In message
Liz wrote:


Except that it's
http://www.v-liz.com/safari/samburu/samburua/samb_a.htm

It's worse than that.
None of the pix on any of the samburua folder show up 'live'.
They're all fine on my hard disk, so I deleted the folder from my website
and ftp'd it again, but the pix still don't show.

Until I work out what's wrong, you can see them at my old domain:
http://www.v-liz.co.uk/safari/sambur...rua/samb_a.htm
However, on that site, my home page and sitemap are inaccessible.
Grief.
Technology.
:-(((
(The Amboseli pages seem to be fine on both domains)

Slainte

Liz

--
Virtual Liz now at http://www.v-liz.com
Kenya; Tanzania; Namibia; India; Seychelles; Galapagos
"I speak of Africa and golden joys"

In message , Dana
writes
Hi.
Has anyone been to Amboseli and Samburu and share any comments?
We're planning to join a camping safari but are having to choose
between two.
Thx.
Dana.
It`s a hard choice as Liz points out. Samburu is an interesting
reserve. It`s arid and dry and you will see elephant but also game that
is only found in the dry areas, such as gerenuk, a type of antelope,
and Grevy zebra, which are striped more finely than the common plains
zebra.
I think Samburu would be the best choice.
Pat
--
Pat Anderson

On 22 Nov 2004 11:32:44 -0800, (Dana) wrote:

Has anyone been to Amboseli and Samburu and share any comments?
We're planning to join a camping safari but are having to choose
between two.

Dana,

let me just repeat the mail here, so others can add to it or
benefit.

I don't mention the points that are the same for both nature
reserves.


Samburu and Buffalo Springs (two adjacent reserves, you can use
both for game drives)

* Very beautiful, typically African hilly, mostly open bush
savannah landscape along a river (Samburu River, Ewaso Ngiro)

* Many drivable tracks

* Crocodiles in the river, they come out when they are fed in
the evening at Samburu Lodge (Samburu Game Lodge) and also
occasionally at Samburu Serena Lodge


Amboseli

* Open, partly semi-desert landscape around a swamp with some
open water

* Mt. Kilimanjaro provides a magnificent backdrop, particularly
for photography. The mountain is mostly cloud-covered and
invisible, but if you stay for a few days, chances are that
you'll see it early in the morning or around sunset.

* Very dusty when dry

* Usually more tourists than in Samburu because it is so easy to
reach from the coastal resorts

* Most of the time there are many elephants, mostly habituated,
moving near cars


If I had the time for only one of the two I would, other things
being equal, narrowly prefer Samburu. However, it also depends
on where else you want to go. It is an advantage not to travel
unnecessarily long distances.

Hans-Georg

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No mail, please.

Dana wrote:

Hi.
Has anyone been to Amboseli and Samburu and share any comments?
We're planning to join a camping safari but are having to choose
between two.

Samburu is definitely a better stop for wildlife.. you
miss the chance to see Mt. Kilimanjaro, and perhaps
the big groups of elephants.. but the diversity of
wildlife @ Samburu makes it the better choice.

FYI, and I haven't seen this mentioned, you now
must pay park fees at both Buffalo Springs AND
Samburu.. $30 per day, so if you visit both in any
one day, that's $60 in park fees. (The parks are
adjacent, separated by the river).

You didn't mention when you are going. For camping,
do NOT go between mid-March & mid-May. Too
likely to have your trip impacted by the rains.
As for Samburu being arid and dry, that's certainly
true much of the year.. but after the rains, from
late May through June, it is lush and lovely.

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 15:46:57 -0700, Dave Patterson
wrote:

FYI, and I haven't seen this mentioned, you now
must pay park fees at both Buffalo Springs AND
Samburu.. $30 per day, so if you visit both in any
one day, that's $60 in park fees. (The parks are
adjacent, separated by the river).

Dave,

oh, is that really true? Incredible! They used to have a way to
let people only pay for one side even if they crossed over.

So what do you do if you want to see both nature reserves
without paying $60 per day? You spend a night in the Samburu
Lodge, then you move over to the Samburu Serena for the next
night? That's ridiculous.

It would also mean that you pay again for driving out when you
want to take the shortcut through Buffalo Springs (unless you
slip out in the early morning while the rangers still sleep :-).

Hans-Georg

p.s. In my previous message I wrote "Many drivable tracks" for
Samburu and Buffalo Springs, meaning that you have a lot of
freedom to maneuver your car near any interesting place or
animal, but forgot to mention that Amboseli has only a thin net
of relatively few tracks, and adherence to these tracks is
strictly enforced. The reason is again the higher tourist
density in Amboseli and also the somewhat more stressed
vegetation.

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.

In message
Dave Patterson wrote:



FYI, and I haven't seen this mentioned, you now
must pay park fees at both Buffalo Springs AND
Samburu.. $30 per day, so if you visit both in any
one day, that's $60 in park fees. (The parks are
adjacent, separated by the river).

This is something that always made me curious.
The guide books (e.g. Rough Guide to Kenya) said this was the case even
before our first trip in '94.
(I notice you say 'now' and, sadly, I haven't been since '02, so things may
have changed)

I never saw any money or vouchers being exchanged going over the bridge
between the two reserves (unlike when you enter and leave the
Samburu/Buffalo Springs complex), nor did our driver/guides ever mention
this as an 'issue'. We always went back and forward as we pleased. (In
contrast to, for example, "We could go to Lake Bogoria/Hell's Gate if you
want, but there are entry fees".)
I've often wondered if we automatically paid for both parks for every day,
but it was just lumped in with our total costing, so we didn't realise.
I have never seen the askaris at the bridge checking anyone's paperwork or
collecting fees: they just raise and lower the barrier - sometimes there was
no-one there and the barrier was left up!

Even the year we stayed five nights at Shaba and it was so dry there were
few animals there, our driver/guide suggested in the mornings we drive down
to Samburu or Buffalo Springs after a very early breakfast and stay until
lunchtime, then went around Shaba or went down again to Samburu/Buffalo
Springs in the afternoons. No extra fee was mentioned.

Another advantage of Samburu is that you can see the elephants crossing
and/or playing in the river, if your driver/guide knows where to take you.
They do it around 11a.m. to 12 noon more or less every day, at least in July.
Most of the 'tourists' are in the lodges by then: the first time we went to
see them there was only one other vehicle there; in '02 we had them all to
ourselves.

I've got
http://www.v-liz.com/safari/samburu/samburua/samb_a.htm
working again (with a kludge, but don't knock it!), which is better, as it
avoids the missing site index/home page frustrations.

Slainte

Liz

--
Virtual Liz now at http://www.v-liz.com
Kenya; Tanzania; Namibia; India; Seychelles; Galapagos
"I speak of Africa and golden joys"

Liz,

couldn't reach you by mail. Please see my message near the end
of this one.

Hans-Georg


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From: Hans-Georg Michna
To: Liz
Subject: Kenya: Amboseli vs Samburu ?
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 10:37:07 +0100
Organization: ACI Micro
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On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 23:27:08 GMT, you wrote:

I've got
http://www.v-liz.com/safari/samburu/samburua/samb_a.htm
working again (with a kludge, but don't knock it!), which is better, as it
avoids the missing site index/home page frustrations.

Liz,

just looked at your wonderful pictures again, the Samburu ones.

There seems to be an endless loop when one gets to the birds of
prey. Clicking on MORE gets me to birds, clicking on MORE again
gets me back to birds of prey and so on, endlessly. Perhaps one
of these links doesn't point in the right direction.

Which is a pity, because I'd like to see even more of your
photos. (:-)

Greetings---Hans

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