Month by month
Samburu in March
March is the month the year turns. Rainfall goes from 29 mm in February to 68 mm, and the number of rain days doubles from four to eight. The first week or so still behaves like February, and by the end of the month the long rains are running.
If you only want the answer
A month of two halves, and the change is in the frequency rather than the size of the storms. Early March is still dry-window country; late March belongs to the long rains, with thickening bush and game spreading away from the river. Take a 4x4, keep the schedule loose, and expect to pay high-season air fares for wet-season conditions.
Rain days are the number to watch
March's normals are 68 mm across eight rain days, days of 31.6°C and nights of 20.0°C. The totals matter less than the frequency: January and February each average four rain days, March averages eight, and that is what turns an afternoon shower into a pattern you have to plan around.
Per storm, March is on the gentle side. Its 68 mm spread over eight days works out at roughly 8.5 mm a day when it rains, against April's 10 mm over seven. So March interrupts more than it floods, which is why the first half of the month is often perfectly workable.
What the rain does to the game viewing
Everything here runs off the Ewaso Ng'iro. In the dry months it is the only permanent water in the landscape, so elephants come down daily and the riverine strip of doum palms holds most of the action. Once the seasonal pans and luggas start filling, the animals no longer have to come to the river, and three small reserves suddenly feel a lot larger.
The specials are still here and still findable. Reticulated giraffe are abundant, with 4,531 counted in the wider Laikipia, Samburu, Marsabit and Meru ecosystem, and beisa oryx prefer the open ground away from the river, which the rain makes greener rather than emptier. Lion takes longer in any month, with roughly fifty animals monitored across this landscape by Ewaso Lions.
Costs, and why March is the awkward one
March is the worst pairing of price and weather on the calendar. Safarilink's 2026 timetable keeps high season running to 31 March and only drops to low season on 1 April, so a March visit buys wet-season conditions at peak-season scheduling. April, wetter still, is when the fares and the availability ease.
The gate charge is indifferent to all of it. Samburu National Reserve is $85 for a non-resident adult and Buffalo Springs and Shaba are $70, set by two separate county finance acts, in March exactly as in September.