Nov 5 - Lake Nakuru National Park

Saturday was an amazing day of a mini-safari at Lake Nakuru National Park. Nakuru is about a 4 hour drive from Machakos, so we set out early at 5:30 am.

With a stop for breakfast in Nairobi at 7 am, we got to the park about 10:30 am. Lake Nakuru National Park is mostly know for 2 things: Flamingos and Rhinos! It is a beautiful National Park, set at the base of some volcanic mountains. The central feature of the park is Lake Nakuru. It is a “soda lake” which means it is so salty only one breed of fish has adapted well enough to live in it. The landscape around the lake is mostly forest and at one point we came across the most beautiful waterfall. A real difference from the savanna of the Masai Mara park.

 

We saw loads of Buffalo. Check out this mean old bull – He was nasty looking and smelled worse!  He had obviously rolled in the mud. The flies loved it! He was swarming with them. Ugh!

 We saw herds of Waterbuck up close, as well as zebra, Impala etc.  This beautiful doe was just beside the road. Her shiny wet nose was quivering as she took in our smells.

Then we saw what we had come for: a Rhino! They are very shy since they were hunted almost to extinction, and it is very unusual to get close to one. So when this huge White Rhino came over close to our car, we all held our breath while he passed by. There are only about 40 in the park, so we were extremely lucky! It’s not hard to imagine a Triceratops dinosaur roaming the earth when you see them.

 

After the close encounter with the rhino we saw pelicans. MILLIONS of pelicans all together! I have never seen so many of them in such close quarters. We were really looking for flamingos, but they must have gone elsewhere, as we only saw about a dozen. They were lovely with incredible pink and black colouring. A far cry from the ones I’ve seen decorating peoples’ front lawns! Hahaha.

 As we were preparing to leave the park, we saw lots of baboons. The mothers with babies were the most fun to watch and they groomed and carried babies around as if we weren’t there. One huge male walked over to the car, and gave a big yawning display to show us all his fangs and warn us to keep moving.

For a last treat, the park had something special in store for us: A Suni! I bet you have never heard of one. (I never had). It is the smallest antelope in the world – sized somewhere between a cat and a medium sized dog. They are extremely rare and it popped out of the bush at the side of the road. We all said, “What IS it?” and we looked it up in our game book to find out what I just wrote.

I gather I am one of only very few people in world to have ever seen one! And so I will share it with you!