Month by month
Samburu in June
June opens the long dry season. Rainfall drops to 5 mm and the thirty-year average records no full wet day at all, the first of four such months. Days sit at 30.9°C, which makes June one of the two mildest months of the year.
If you only want the answer
The start of the best stretch, and the most comfortable part of it. Almost no rain, mild afternoons and the seasonal water disappearing, which pulls the game back towards the Ewaso Ng'iro. The first half of the month still carries low-season flight pricing, so the first fortnight of June is the sweet spot of the year.
The tap closes
June's normals are 5 mm of rain, days of 30.9°C and nights of 19.4°C, with zero rain days on the average. May still recorded two. From here the year runs 5 mm, 3 mm, 2 mm and 1 mm through to September, 11 mm across four months, which is as dry as this part of Kenya gets.
June and July are the two mildest months of the dry season, 30.9°C and 30.2°C, both more than a degree cooler than September's 32.4°C. Only the wet months of November and December are cooler still. That combination, dry ground and a tolerable afternoon, is why the long dry season is worth starting early rather than late.
The game comes back to the river
As the seasonal pans and luggas dry out, the Ewaso Ng'iro becomes the only permanent water in the landscape, and everything negotiates with it daily. Elephants are the clearest case: Save the Elephants has identified more than 900 individuals using these reserves since 1997, and in the dry months they come down to drink and cross the river on a daily rhythm. Nile crocodiles are in the water in numbers.
The rest of the northern list is easier now too. Reticulated giraffe are close to certain, with 4,531 counted in the wider Laikipia, Samburu, Marsabit and Meru ecosystem, and beisa oryx hold the open ground with 2,414 counted in the same area. Grevy's zebra is the species this ecosystem is known for, carrying 93 per cent of the world population according to Kenya's 2021 census.
The calendar splits mid-month
Safarilink's 2026 timetable puts low season up to 15 June and high season from 16 June to 31 October. So the first fortnight gives you dry-season conditions at low-season scheduling, which is the single best piece of timing arithmetic on this calendar.
From mid-month, book ahead. The northern circuit flights operate subject to a minimum of four passengers per service and two per airstrip, they call at Nanyuki, Kamok, Lewa Downs, Loisaba, Sasaab and the Kalama strip, and the timetable warns that arrival and departure times can vary by 40 minutes or more. Baggage is a strict 15 kg per person in soft bags no larger than 60 by 45 by 30 cm.