{"id":306,"date":"2022-04-24T10:32:27","date_gmt":"2022-04-24T10:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irissrin.com\/blog\/?p=306"},"modified":"2022-04-26T12:16:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T12:16:50","slug":"safari-to-kenya-lake-nakuru-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irissrin.com\/blog\/safari-to-kenya-lake-nakuru-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Safari to Kenya – Lake Nakuru National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a continuation from Safari to Kenya \u2013 Samburu to Lake Elmenteita<\/a> that ended with our going to bed at Sunbird Lodge on Tuesday, March 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lake Nakuru National Park (Wednesday, March 9)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To recap, on Tuesday, March 8, we had a long travel day by road from Samburu National Reserve<\/a> to Sunbird Lodge<\/a> on the shores of Lake Elmenteita<\/a>.  On the way, we learned a little more about Kenyan culture, geography, and history \u2013 my conviction that nothing quite beats seeing a country by road or by rail (airplanes don\u2019t quite cut it) was reaffirmed!  We got acquainted with our guide David and settled into Marabou, our cottage for a few days at Sunbird Lodge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wednesday morning dawned with the (by now) usual, African flair; we were treated to a gorgeous sunrise over the hills behind our cottage.  I was up just before 6am while Iris snoozed.  I captured a little of the scene (hard to do justice to that morning) on my phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We got going quickly and were soon back at the patio overlooking Lake Elmenteita for an early breakfast.  Caroline, our server from dinner the previous night, was there and soon we were tucking into another breakfast and watching a flock of lovebirds pecking on the Ugali<\/a> that the staff had deposited in their bird feeder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Around 7:20am, David greeted us from the reception area.  I hurriedly downed the last of my coffee (tea for Iris as usual), went to say Hello to David, and headed to the 4×4, having checked that David had already eaten.  At the reception, Caroline handed us our packed lunch basket as we planned to be out for much of the day at Lake Nakuru National Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soon we were rattling down the unpaved driveway of the lodge and a couple of minutes later, we made a left onto the Nairobi-Nakuru highway headed back in the direction of Lake Nakuru<\/a>.  The 30-minute drive was quite pleasant; while the sun was out, the early morning cool persisted.  We went past a couple of conservancies on either side of the road, and David pointed out some Impala and told us a bit more about the ubiquitous Acacia trees.  I don\u2019t remember much of the detail but apparently there are gazillion varieties of Acacia.  David also pointed out Aloe Vera plants and how they are used in Kenya, not that different from the rest of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By about 8:00am we were in the thick of Nakuru traffic, probably people headed to work.  David turned left off the highway down a bumpy side road and drove toward the lake.  Soon we were at the Lanet gate of the park where we stopped to allow the rangers to check our permit for the day.  David went to negotiate the formalities and I hopped off the 4×4 to chat with a lady seated at the gate toting a very impressive looking weapon \u2013 it looked like an AK 47 or something of that nature.  I hailed her with a \u201cJambo!\u201d and she responded in kind.  Despite the intimidating hardware, she was super nice, and we talked a little bit \u2013 asking where we were from.  She told me that she was from the Kamba tribe, like David.  We chit-chatted a little more and she told me that the weaponry was mainly to deal with poachers, hardly a problem anymore.  Soon permits checked, David came out of the office beside the gate; so, she and I said our goodbyes.  As it turned out, David knew her from prior trips to Nakuru and they exchanged some pleasantries in Swahili before we entered the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We drove down your typical unpaved dirt track and then crested a rise from which we finally had a panoramic view of the park with the lake in the background.  The grass was brown and looked exceedingly dry, with the odd Acacia tree relieving the monotony.  The lake was an inviting shade of blue.  Some buffalo grazed out in the distance.  Strangest in my mind was the sight of the city in the background \u2013 only in Kenya have I seen such a juxtaposition of a large urban center with a wildlife park (Lake Nakuru wasn\u2019t an exception either; Nairobi has the same set-up).  My sister said that of Guindy National Park<\/a> in Chennai, India<\/a>.  I suspect that it is not as uncommon as I make it sound!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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David drove the Toyota Landcruiser further into the park.  Soon we were on relatively flat land, in contrast to the undulating terrain when we entered the park.  The left side of the vehicle was lightly wooded about 200 yards away with grassland closer to the track, while the starboard side was dry grassland.  David stopped and said, \u201cSouthern White Rhino<\/a>!\u201d.  Our necks swiveled to where he was looking, toward port and we saw a pair of grey Rhino.  (As we learned later, just about every Rhino is grey despite the names \u2013 the Black Rhino<\/a> common in Kenya (critically endangered) is the same coloration.  However, they are distinguished by their upper lip \u2013 a black rhino has a pointed lip, while white rhinos are adorned with a squarish lip.  Black rhinos are far more aggressive while, paradoxically, being very shy and hard to approach.  David told us that there were plenty of cases where a black rhino charged a vehicle!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I got some good photos of the rhinos while we were stopped for about 10 minutes.  We then set off again and spotted a Pumba (warthog) digging up its morning meal.  David has phenomenal eyesight and a moment later he said Black Rhino out to our 2 o\u2019clock.  We looked and couldn\u2019t see anything and said as much.  He said, \u201clook out at the tree line towards the fence of the park\u201d, and sure enough, out almost a mile away we could see what looked to us like a rhino!  David drove us a little closer (maybe a half mile away) and told us that if we drove any closer, it would get alarmed and move away.  Thanks to my trusty 75-300mm telephoto lens, I finally managed to capture a few passable images.  It was surreal to see a rhino with a backdrop of buildings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We chatted a little about the functionally extinct Northern White Rhinoceros<\/a>.  David told us that there were a pair of females in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy<\/a>, the last two specimens in the wild.  Efforts are underway to fertilize the harvested eggs from the females with a deceased male and implant the (hopefully) resultant embryos within a Southern White Rhino surrogate mother.  Meanwhile the females live with 24-hour armed guards on Ol Pejeta, a sad testimony to the nature of our world.  One can only hope that the procedure works, and we leave a few more Northern White Rhinoceros for posterity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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