Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba National Reserves in Northern Kenya are popular tourist destinations with a diverse and unique semi-arid wildlife population. Leaving the hustle, bustle, noise and congested traffic of Nairobi behind and hitting the open road towards Isiolo Town is an adventure filled with excitement of what the Northern Kenya Game Reserves will showcase. The drive is long, but interesting as you travel the Thika Highway passing ramshackle towns and markets. Eventually the rugged peaks of Mount Kenya become visible as you leave the towns behind and enter an area of farmlands, the road climbing past the Aberdares and into rural Kenya.

These northern Kenya game reserves offer a plethora of game and the bird life is prolific. The blue colours of the vulturine guineafowl are doubly striking as they contrast so vividly with the surrounding muted white and brown landscape. The superb starlings and Kenya violet-backed sunbirds add a celebration of colour to this stark land.The following day we head out to Shaba National Reserve, this small reserve is where Joy Adamson lived and sadly died, while she was documenting the release of Penny. the leopard that she had hand reared, back into the wild. The roads of Shaba are made of volcanic rubble, as you bounce along these tracks the landscape changes again; the tectonic turmoil from eons past is more starkly visible here. Hills dominate; the flat areas are dazzling white with powdery sand interspersed with sparse vegetation. This reserve is beautifully stark and desolate, a feeling of tranquillity settles over you as you drive over the rutted track with no other vehicles visible, the isolation and remoteness is palpable.

A Grevy's zebra stands alone, defending his territory from other males and hoping for some passing females to come his way. The comical large ears twitching on either side of his long sad looking face, reflects how vulnerable this species is. In a brittle leafless forest glade, the birdsong is sweet music to my ears. As we arrive at one of the numerous swamps, the area is full of buffalo grazing contently on the green juicy grass. Excitedly I spy some movement in the long grass, it looks like the flick of a tail. With my binoculars out, I focus on the spot and see a leopard lying on the thicket gazing at the baby buffalo.As the sun begins to cool, we climbed up Turkana Hill, where the summit allows a 360o view across the area, we enjoyed the novel experience of being able to see Mount Kenya in the far distance, have a true panoramic view, surveying all around us, and see no sign of human habitation. It is truly breathtaking.

The three game reserves of Shaba, Buffalo Springs and Samburu plus Kalama Conservancy offer such surprisingly distinct topography, vistas and wildlife sightings from the rest of Kenya and even from each other, no wonder they are a popular tourist destination.