Kiota Journal
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Places · 6 min read
Beyond the Big Five: Discovering Northern Kenya
Samburu and the north, for travellers who have already seen the classic south.
The Big Five are a useful phrase and a small map. Northern Kenya is where the country changes temperature, colour, and company. The Ewaso Nyiro, the doum palms, and the dry hills of Samburu feel nothing like the Mara, even when the drive between them is only a day.
This is the place people come to look for the northern specialists: Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, the Somali ostrich, gerenuk, and Beisa oryx, along with elephant and the usual plains game. Nothing is promised on a given drive. The point of the north is the difference in the landscape, and the quiet of conservancies that never fill the way a famous park can.
Samburu rewards two nights at least — an arrival drive, a full day, and a morning before you turn south toward Aberdare, Nakuru, or the Mara. Laikipia, on the way, is private conservancy country in its own right, with Ol Pejeta among the places a game drive can unfold slowly.
Northern Kenya suits return guests, and first-time travellers who would rather have variety than a single famous view. It is hotter, the roads are longer, and the reward is a Kenya most visitors never reach.