Monday, July 28, 2014

Kenya Safari: Lake Nakuru National Park

Day 5

We spent most of the day driving from the Masai Mara to Nakuru town.  Near Lake Naivasha, we met back up with Sammy and the Czech couple.  We then finished the drive to Nakuru.  We were staying at a hotel in Nakuru (again, I wished we were camping by the lake, but during this time of tourism downturn, hotels might actually be cheaper than camping since camping prices are set by the pricey National Parks.  But since we were in the city, it also allowed us to watch the Germany vs Argentina world cup championship game.  Unfortunately, my team lost.  Pobrecito Argentina.)

We spent the early evening walking to Lake Nakuru and the entrance gate with some British folk.  Along the way there were hundreds of kids, and they all yelled out to us "How are you?"  We don't think they actually knew what was going on, and some were so young that we figured it was the first words they had actually learned.  But by the time we got through the little village area and down to the park, our following of children had swelled.

That night, we stayed up to the wee hours of the morning watching the Germany vs. Argentina championship game, which went into extra time.

Day 6.

We woke up early to do a morning game drive through Lake Nakuru National Park.  During the drive we visited a nice viewpoint overlooking the salty lake as well as visited a waterfall.


Nakuru is home to one of the world’s largest densities of rhinos in the world and one of the best places in Kenya to have a chance to see them.  During our game drive, we happened upon 4 separate rhinos.  The park also had huge herds of buffalo.  Typically the park is filled with pink flamingos; however, the lake has been increasing in volume—so much that it’s flooded a large portion of the park—and with the increase in depth of the lake, it is not good habitat for flamingos.  So there were only a handful around. 

The afternoon and evening was spent driving back to Nairobi and then on to Amboseli.  The route to Amboseli partially used the Nairobi to Mombasa road, which is crazy busy with huge truck, which makes for some crazy driving.  I don’t think the Czechs were used to this kind of driving, so they appeared quite nervous, but actually our driver, Ambrose, was very safe.  We had switched from Sammy to Ambrose b/c Sammy needed to stay in Nairobi to properly fix his van



















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