LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK – KENYA

As part of the 6 day safari I did in Kenya I visited Lake Nakuru National Park for 1 day. I’m sharing my experience in this park that served as a break in between two major safari areas.

LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK

Lake Nakuru National Park is relatively small when compared with other parks and it’s easy to explore in one day. The park is located in the Southern Rift Valley, Kenya.

The lake attracts many visitors, mainly because of one of the most beautiful bird spectacles on earth, when thousands and sometimes even millions of flamingos around in the shores of the lake. The park is also known for the enormous amount of bird species, over 400 already.

Unlike Maasai Mara, driving off road is strictly forbidden and the vehicles should be on the defined paths at all times.

The roads are dusty and rocky but the scenario is beautiful. Gorgeous giraffes roam the savannah together with numerous baboons.

[highlight]ENTRY FEES[/highlight] Non Residents (Kenya) – adults 90 US$ (this should be included in your tour).

[highlight]HOW TO GET THERE?[/highlight] By car from Nairobi it’s only 2 hours, so perfect for a day out. It can also be visited as part of a safari circuit, normally from Maasai Mara and will take about 5 hours driving. A chartered small aircraft can also land at Naishi airstrip.

From Maasai Mara to Lake Nakuru

A drive of 5 hours, with some small stops on the way, took us from Maasai Mara to Lake Nakuru.

Having the afternoon to relax before our next game drive meant that I was hoping to soak up on a bit of civilization and maybe…some Wi-Fi?! But in Africa you should really avoid making plans – the hotel generator failed so no electricity for the rest of the day.

It was very hot outside and we were in no mood for shopping. The receptionist in the hotel recommended us a pool.

They said we could just take a public bike. We didn’t really got what she meant but we came outside and it was literally a random person that immediately appeared and for $1 took us to our destination.

It was fun! The pool entrance cost us $2 for the all day and it was great to rest after roughing it out in Maasai Mara.

Game drive in Lake Nakuru

The next day we left our hotel at 7am and we started our game drive in the park with the funniest welcome from a group of baboons.

They were so many, running toward us, frenetic grooming each other and eating fruits and grass. They also tried to jump towards our cameras and on our vehicle a lot of times!

There was a shocking when we were watching a group of gazelles, and all the suddenly, we saw these baboons screaming and running really fast.

We could not see anything and then our guide said to pay attention on what the baboons were eating. It was a baby gazelle.

It was raw nature and it seemed a bit cruel, but our guide explained to us that this is not very common.

We have found the rhinos!

We kept looking for the rhinos as it was said to us that it would be very likely to see them.

The park is a sanctuary for rhinos. To keep out the poachers there is a fence around the park but that doesn’t seem to change the animals’ movements as the park has been enlarged recently. Because of this, the park has seen the numbers of rhinos has grown considerable and they monitor this species carefully.

With great excitement for all the people in our group we found the rhinos! It was a group of five, sleeping under a tree, together with zebras and warthogs. This is something that is common, as rhinos eat during the night and rest during the day.

We stayed for quite a while observing their movements and when they stand up we could watch how big they were. They seemed very friendly towards the others animals.

During the rest of the day we have also spotted other animals such as lions, gazelles, buffalos, zebras, giraffes and wildebeest.

Walking Safari

We drove up to Baboons Cliff, a view point, famous for flamingo watching. We finally left the car for a while and it was refreshing. The view was fantastic and gave us the chance to stretch our legs and relax for a small break.

Lake Nakuru National Park is very famous for the thousands, sometimes millions of flamingos that live along the shore. They feed on specific algae from the lake that is in great amounts.

The population varies during the year, depending on the alkalinity of the lake, something that we only learned once there. From what we had read before, normally in the dry season there a lot of flamingos in the lake, but we were not lucky. As I said before, in previous articles, with safaris it’s not guaranteed to see the animals even if you plan to do it.

Unfortunately in the time we were there the flamingos have migrated to another area and there were only a few of them on the distance and we could hardly see them.

Because of this, we then went on a walking safari near the lake. In order to see some of flamingos feeding in that area. They were dozens with that beautiful characteristic pink colour.

At the same time we were watching them, there were numerous bird’s species that we spotted with various colours and they seemed interested in us. Far away we could see some zebras too. The car was not far away so I did not felt unsafe.

It was good to just walk around the savannah, almost like our ancestors.

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