We survived the trip from Samburu to Lake Nakuru National Park, with nothing but a mobbing at the Isoilo checkpoint by a woman trying to sell us bananas and a man trying to sell us bracelets, knives or letter openers. Of course we walked away with a bracelet and a letter opener.
Lake Nakuru is quite a big, bustling town and the National Park is just outside the town. Our accommodation was on Honeymoon Hill, just inside the National Park. It was a small boutique hotel, which dished up some of the best meals we have had.
Famous for its flamingoes, Lake Nakuru is one of the most visited parks in Kenya.
As well as the flamingoes, the park is home to leopard, giraffe, rhino, warthogs, baboons and antelope.
The flamingoes are amazing – hundreds of thousands of them scattered across the lake creating a pink ribbon along the shoreline.
Lake Nakuru is also famous for the Rothschild giraffe, which is lighter in colour than the Masai giraffe and has white sock-like markings on its legs. Despite the fact the giraffe is endangered, we saw many throughout the park.
Unfortunately the leopard was not so easy to spot. Apparently Lake Nakuru is the best place to see leopards as there are about 60 in the park.
After five hours travelling up and down tracks at what could only be five kilometres an hour, we had seen nothing. At least no leopards – again we saw many giraffes, warthog and rhinos, but no leopards.
Lake Nakuru has an abundance of rhino – we saw baby rhino with its two parents, rhino mating (yep, rhinoporn, something I really never expected to see), a baby rhino fighting with a warthog and rhino in pairs grazing with the shore in the background. The rhino creates a stunning contrast against the elegant pink flamingoes.
Seeing so many rhino, it was easy to forget they are an endangered species and generally difficult to spot.
Lake Nakuru is a mix of open savannahs and dense bush set on the massive lake. The savannahs make spotting the rhino easy, however the dense bush makes spotting leopards very difficult!
Fast Facts
We stayed at Flamingo Hill Tented Camp
We were here for two nights.
Was it long enough? We didn’t need any longer, though it would have been nice to make more use of the swimming pool!
Highlights: The abundance of rhino and the stunning pink flamingoes.
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