The Wildlife of Lake Nakuru

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We are now on a safari camping tour and having a ball. At the moment, there are 16 of us, a nice mix of people from around the world. Most people finish their tour in a couple of weeks with only a handful continuing past Uganda. Our tour leader, Will, is a fabulous cook so we will not starve and with fresh fruit and vegetables everyday our diet looks much more promising than previously and our driver Rhino from Zimbabwe, with his infectious smile, makes sure we arrive safely at our destination. Luckily for us the tents are easy to put up and really strong. The first test of their waterproof capacity came in the evening of the second day where it absolutely poured with rain, we have never seen so much rain fall so quickly but surprisingly the tents were perfectly dry.

Our first stop was Nakuru and Kenya's famous Lake Nakuru National Park. The photos speak for themselves but the park has a high concentration of game with a huge lake in the middle home to thousands of flamingoes, pelicans and huge marabou stalks, a sea of pink against the dry horizon. At first the only thing we saw were the huge mosquitoes that caused complete havoc in our vehicle as they devoured the passengers. These were no ordinary mosquitoes, they were about four times the size and we were told that they have been genitally engineered to kill of their smaller malaria carrying cousins but I am not sure how much truth there is to that. If true, it is a brutal way to go about it, the bites from these critters are vicious.

Huge buffalo, white and black rhino, zebra and giraffe stalked across the savannah, gazelle, impala and waterbuck fed on the long grasses alongside the dirt road while cheeky baboons loitered around looking for the opportunity to steal food. One large baboon in particular came charging up to us full steam baring his canines in an attempt to steal our pineapple. He was very close but chased away with a stick just as he stuck his hand out to grab it.

Overlooking the lake was magical as buffalo and zebras walked down to the water by the hundreds while colourful lizards scampered over the rocks baking in the sun. Unfortunately the lazy lions were hiding but there will be plenty of opportunities to see them hopefully. Just before we left the park we stopped in at a resort for a dip in their luxurious pool overlooking the park with baboons sitting on the roof keeping an eye on proceedings.

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