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Samburu National Reserve
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Samburu National Reserve is located on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro River in Kenya. The river attracts elephant, lion, giraffe and zebra from the surrounding savannah plains. Leopards are also regularly spotted. Perhaps the best part of Samburu National Reserve is that it is not as well-known as some of the other great parks and thus not too crowded - a huge plus in Kenya, where so many reserves are often overflowing with tourists.
The people of Samburu are like the Maasai, are semi-nomadic pastoralists whose lives revolve around their cows, sheep, goats, and camels. Milk is their main stay; sometimes it is mixed with blood. Most Samburu dress in traditional clothing of bright red material and wear multi-beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings.
Like the Maasai, the Samburu migrated from the Sudan as part of the Plains Nilotic movement under pressure from the Borana expansion. The Maa-speaking people continued moving south, traveling down the Rift Valley into Tanzania. Today, the Samburu remain in the early settlement area of the Maa group. Those who moved on south are today called Maasai, and retained a more purely nomadic lifestyle until recently when they also began to settle and farm.
