Today you will drive to
Lake Nakuru National Park. Enjoy game viewing and bird watching. After lunch,
drive back to Nairobi.
Lake Nakuru, a shallow
and alkaline lake on the bed of the Great Rift Valley, has earned its fame as
the home of the greatest bird spectacle in the world - a myriad of often more
than a million pink flamingos which seasonally use its waters to feed on the
abundant algae which thrives in its shallow warm waters. It lies 156 kms (100
miles) from Nairobi by road.
Sporadically, Lake Nakuru
is subject to fluctuations in depth and water line and perhaps once in every
two to three decades dries up completely. Then the vast flocks of flamingo which
color its waters a delicate pink, and the pelicans which swim and fish with
them, use the rising morning thermals of the Rift Valley to gain lift to fly
over Menengai crater, the high rim of a large volcanic crater 89 kms in extent,
and on down the Rift Valley to the more remote waters of Lake Bogoria. Although
the flamingos are the most obvious, other inhabitants of the alkaline lake include
Black-winged stilts, avocets and in the European winter a mass of ruffs. Lake
Nakuru National Park has a great deal to offer beside its magnificent birdlife.
It is also a rhino sanctuary and one of the best places in the country to see
both black and white rhinos. The park is also home to lions, leopards, buffalo
and other plains and forest game which have made it their permanent and protected
habitat. The acacia savannah that surrounds the lake is itself beautiful and
proves an area which is particularly good for game viewing.
Duration: 9 Hours