Lake Nakuru, Kenya

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July 5, 6, 2008

Lake Nakuru, Kenya

On Saturday we flew to Nairobi, Kenya and spent a quiet evening at our hotel as we have an early morning start to our trip to Lake Nakuru Park. Nairobi looks like a very busy place but generally very poor. Our accommodation was certainly not indicative of the way most Kenyans live.

Sunday morning we met our Driver / Guide for the next 8 days, Raymond, a young man from Tanzania who will travel with us until we leave Tanzania on our way to Capetown.

We had a 3 hour drive through the Kenyan countryside, and down into the Great Rift Valley to the park and took our picnic lunch on a large bluff overlooking the large lake and part of the 180 Sq. KM nature reserve. This is a beautiful place and the wildlife viewing is spectacular. If this is any indication of the next few days we are going to have a great time.

Today we saw White Rhino, Impalas, Water Bucks, Gazelles, Antelope, Giraffe, too many kinds of birds, Cape Buffalo ( hundreds of them ), land tortoise, Wart Hogs, Spotted Hyenas, Baboons, Monkeys, and a few misc small animals. WOW !!

The guide tells us that this is not a common stop on most tours as it is a little bit out of the way but is a very popular spot for the locals to come. The viewing from our “Pop-Top” Toyota Land Cruiser is great. This is one very tough vehicle as you can’t imagine the roads we were on today. ( the roads ( trails ) in the park were better than the highway in a rather long construction zone.)

As we commented on before, it is really nice having a private, or small group, tour as you get a lot more feedback and communication with the guide and some real insight into the local lifestyle that you don’t get on a bus. Another big plus is the flexibility of going where you want to go and staying as long as you want. It’s worth the extra money for sure.

We finished the day with another couple of hours on the road to our Lodge on our way to Masai Mara and more game viewing tomorrow.

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