Lake Nakuru National Park

November 11 – Lake Naivasha to Lake Nakuru

We departed Lake Naivasha this morning and headed to Lake Nakuru on a two hour bus ride. We arrived earlier than anticipated so we didn’t have a morning game drive set up. Our bus driver was able to take us through some parts of the national park where we were able to see a number of animals including zebras, giraffes, warthogs, a white or wide mouthed rhinoceros, Cape buffalo, grants gazelle, Thomson’s gazelle, impala, water buck, baboons, and vervet monkeys.

After lunch we went on a game drive for a few hours. Our safari vehicle had a roof that opened, and it’s legal to not be seat belted within the park, so I was able to stand most of the time and see out the top of the vehicle. This gave a much better vantage point to see any wildlife. We saw many of the same animals as we saw in the morning, plus a large seasonal waterfall.

Lake Nakuru is famous for its flamingo population. The lake is usually alkaline and shallow which allows for a particular algae to flourish. This algae is what flamingoes feed on and causes their bright pink colour. This lake often hosts hundreds of thousands to a million flamingos! This year has been abnormal with heavy rains for the last few months, which has resulted in higher water levels and a lack of the algae. We did still see flamingoes, but not nearly as many as are often here. The shoreline was also host to a variety of other birds including pelicans, Egyptian geese, and Maribu storks.