Blogs from Lake Nakuru NP, Rift Valley Province, Kenya, Africa - page 4

This is an apparent context If you’ve lived or travelled extensively in Africa you’ll be aware of something known as "corruption". It’s as old as the hills - or at least their colonial naming - and therein lays the problem. From the president and his cronies, through the police, all the way down to the lowliest civil servant. Everyone bemoans its existence, yet nobody seems to be willing or able to tackle it. Politicians, of course, are elected on the back of lofty promises to do just that, yet on gaining power, the bad apples are replaced and recycled by a fresh batch, which seem to be sound on the surface. Gramsci and the backpacker tourist But this little rant isn’t about corruption; this is about 'power' and my perception of its corrupting influence; and ... read more

Well another amazing start to the day we had a game drive through Amboseli and took some really close up shots of Giraffes and Elephants, and another 8hr drive to Lake Nakuru. As soon as we entered the park we saw hundreds of Baboons and Rhinos grazing right next to the track, you could practically touch them. WOW again... On the way up to the lodge we asked why was the majority of the edge of the lake all pink in the distance, and our guide (James) said they were flamingos, 1000s of them all live on the lake. well that was it... thought Vic was going to have kittens, but we had to wait until our game drive. Lake Nakuru lodge was amazing not quite as personal as the camp site but still amazing, again ... read more

We landed in Nairobi in the middle of the day, drowsy from our over night flights and had a horrible time trying to find a hotel for the night. There were three international NGO conferences in the city, and after discussing our options, with numerous touts inevitably, we finally found an overpriced room. We set about to figure out our options on how to get up to Lake Nakuru, of course with more touts trying to get us to take a safari in the Masaai Mara (way out of the way), but we ended up finding the bus stations and setting on a plan for the next few days. We didn’t give much of a chance to Nairobi as we only had limited time, however I will say it is a very nice city from the ... read more

Lake Nakuru definately turned out to be the best game experience for us so far on this trip. We saw every big animal that the National Park has to offer including the elusive leopard and black rhino (these two within the first 20 minutes of entering the park). Nakuru is a soda lake and hosts thousands of flamingos, storks and pelicans. The colour contrasts provided a beautiful setting. We took 891 pictures between the two of us, so imagine how hard it is to pick a few select ones to put on the website. Especially when we witnessed a leopard hunting and feeding on a pelican, and also drove within a few meters of a pride of lions. We also had a bit of an adventure when our Jeep caught fire. Everyone piled out when we ... read more

You may have heard the saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Well, we've modified that saying to be, "If you can't beat it, repeat it!" And that's exactly what we did. For our last few days in East Africa, we decided not to do a new national park as they all sounded second-rate, but cost the same. We instead opted to repeat some of our favourite places. We first headed to Lake Naivasha. We stayed in a different campsite this time, Fisherman's Camp. This prved to be closer to nature than our last camp. Without leaving camp, we saw Maribu storks, vervet monkeys, colobus monkeys, and even a hippo. We decided to spend a day at Crater Lake as we had missed it last time. It seemed pretty simple: take a matatu to the ... read more