The sister reserves are a patchwork of riverine forests and gorges, palm groves and savannah plains where you’ll find Kenya’s Special Five animals
All three of these national reserves – Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba – are in Samburu country in northern Kenya. Samburu National Reserve is north of the Ewaso Ngiro River which provides much-needed water to the reserve’s inhabitants during the long dry season. Buffalo Springs is just south of the river and Shaba to the east of these two, on the other side of the A2 highway or Great North Road, as it’s known. The greater Samburu ecosystem is where Kenya’s endangered and rare Special Five can be seen – Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe, beisa oryx, gerenuk and Somali ostrich.