Month by month
Samburu in May
May is the month the long rains switch off. Rainfall falls from April's 70 mm to 30 mm, and rain days from seven to two, which is the sharpest drop anywhere on the Samburu calendar. The country stays green while the tracks dry out.
If you only want the answer
The value month. Two rain days on the thirty-year average, green country left over from April, drying tracks and low-season flights until 15 June. Game is still spread out rather than gathered at the river, so it is a month for scenery, birds and space rather than for guaranteed big sightings.
The sharpest change on the calendar
May's normals are 30 mm over two rain days, days of 31.8°C and nights of 20.6°C. April carried 70 mm over seven days, so the total falls by more than half and the frequency by more than two thirds. No other month here changes that fast.
The heat barely notices. May is warmer by day than April, 31.8°C against 31.5°C, and shares April's 20.6°C nights, the warmest of the year. What changes is underfoot: two rain days a month is a landscape drying out rather than a season in progress.
Green country, drying tracks
The look of the place in May belongs to April and the driving conditions belong to June. Grass and bush are still carrying the long rains, the doum palms along the Ewaso Ng'iro are at their best, and the sandy luggas have stopped running, though a 4x4 with high clearance is still the vehicle to be in.
Game viewing sits in between as well. The seasonal water left by April has not gone yet, so the animals are not yet obliged to come to the river the way they are from June onwards. Reticulated giraffe and beisa oryx, which hold the open ground away from the water, are the easier finds this month.
What May does not give you
This is not the peak and it is worth saying so. The four months from June to September take 11 mm between them and put the whole landscape on one river, which is when the concentration of animals along the Ewaso Ng'iro is at its most reliable. May is a quieter, greener, cheaper version of a visit rather than the best one.
The price argument is real though. Safarilink counts low season until 15 June, so the first three weeks of June carry the same fares as May with better game viewing, which makes late May and early June the pivot to aim at if the budget is doing the deciding. The gate charge stays at $85 for Samburu and $70 for Buffalo Springs and Shaba in every month.