Lake Nakuru
After 3 days of safari in Masai Mara we were starting to another adventure in Africa. We planned to stay 1 night in Nakuru because we thought it would be enough. But from Masai to Nakuru it took almost 7 hours and most of the day we were on the road. In fact being on the road in Kenya is another adventure because it is so different from any other country…
We were in Nakuru at about 4 o’clock and after checking into our room in Nakuru we headed for the Nakuru lake. We wished that we had two days in Nakuru after seeing the lake because it was really so calm and peaceful with its very distinctive habitat. If you are lucky you will be able to see the flamingos on the lake but unfortunatelly we werent that lucky to see them. Nevertheless it was so fantastic to be around Nakuru lake watching its various bird species.
Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha are at an elevation of about 1700 meters on the Rift Valley. Not only its birds but almost each animal of Kenia is present in Nakuru and additionally the trees in Nakuru are very distinctive. They are really big and if you are lucky you can see a leopard sleeping or resting on a big tree branch.
Just after the sunset we had to go back to our hotel room because of Malaria risk. In fact Nakuru is high enough to have malaria risk but it has a big lake and mosquitos love saltless water as we know. And our guide was anxious about it after the sunset. By the way of course we asked him whether he ever had malaria or not. And no doubt he had. But he spoke about it something very easy to cure like flu and told that in Kenya they had a good treatment for Malaria. Was it enough for us ? Of course not. May be the Kenyans are immune to malaria to some extent but for us it is really a big risk that if you get sick you will most probably have it throughout your life. So it is a disease which mustn’t be underestimated at all. Take your pills and aplly the repellent regularly.
Lake Naivasha
In fact Lake Naivasha wasn’t on our itinerary but seeing after Lake Nakuru we thought that seeing a second lake could be wonderful and fortunatelly we were right. Lake Naivasha was on the road to Nakuru from Nairobi but we visited the lake after Nakuru the next day on the road to Amboseli. In Naivasha there are small boats which you can see the lake sailing on it. Of course with a sailor on it. One of the most exciting attractions of Kenya was no doubt sailing on the lake Naivasha. The first boat we got on was broken in the middle of the lake just near a big hippo family. It was really terrifying at some point as we were really very near to the hippos and the boat didn’t work nearly for ten minutes. Luckily they didn’t get close to us because they are one of the most dangerous species in Kenya killing many people each year even though they seem so slow and harmless.
One of the most beautiful of two lakes was the fish eagle and watching it catches the fish from the surface of the lake. It is really wonderful to see it gets close to the surface and take the fish out of the lake in a blink of an eye. The trees around the lake are full of fish eagles on top of almost each of them waiting still until they decide to feed themselves with mainly fish. We were told that they feed sometimes on flamingos and other big birds on the lake but the main dish is fish in the lake.
Our sailor on the boat was a gentle man trying to do his best calling eagles with his whistle and explaining the habitat around the lake. Thanks to his whistle to call the eagles we got really beautiful shots throughout our 1 hour boat trip on Lake Naivasha. You can reserve one night for Nakuru and one night for Naivasha if you have time to stay for two night around Nakuru area. There are really beautiful lodges around the Lake Naivasha just near the coast of the lake. They seemed so peaceful but I’m sure that you must be very careful about mosquitos while you are so close to the shore.
Leave a Reply