Depart at 7:30am for Lake Nakuru National Park which lies on the floor of the volcano strewn Great Rift Valley and is famous for its greater and lesser flamingoes as well as white pelicans and marabou stock, all water birds that breed in the Lake’s alkaline waters. It’s also the home to the White rhino which is an endangered species.
Proceed for a game drive en-route to the lodge for lunch. Afternoon game viewing will follow in search of the plain game that abounds in the park including Cape buffalo, waterbuck, and Rothschild’s giraffe.
Drive back to Nairobi, arriving in the evening.
Lake Nakuru
Lake Nakuru National Park is a shallow alkaline lake, lies about 100 miles north of Nairobi on a tarmac road. It can therefore be reached easily by road from the capital and the transfer takes less than three hours.
The lake is world famous as the location of the greatest bird spectacle on earth - myriads of pink flamingo whose numbers are legion, often more than a million and which literally turn its shores pink.
They feed on the abundant algae which thrive in the warm waters. But flamingo are not the only avian attraction, as the lake is rich in other birdlife. There are over 400 resident species on the lake and in the surrounding park.
Large numbers of pelicans concentrate by the fresh-water streams that flow into the lake, and thousands of other birds may be seen including African fish eagles, white-winged black terns, stilts, avocets, ducks and in the European winter, the migrant waders.
Lake Nakuru National Park surrounds the lake, offering a wide ecological diversity, from lakeshore, woodland, grassy plains to rocky escarpments and ridges. It has recently been enlarged to provide a sanctuary for black rhino and now has one of the largest concentrations of rhinoceros in the country (both black rhino and white rhino), so the chances of spotting these are very good.
There are also a number of Rothschild's giraffe, translocated for safety from western Kenya. Waterbuck, zebra and Cape buffalo are very common. Lion are present in the park and, like the lions of Lake Manyara, are quite often seen in the acacia trees.
Leopards are also frequently sighted and Lake Nakuru National Park is one of the places where visitors have the best chance of seeing these elusive big cats. The bushlands offer eland, warthog, impala, Mountain Reedbuck and dik dik, whilst rock hyrax and klipspringer occupy the cliffs and escarpment.
Visiting Attractions
Lake Nakuru National Park