Lake Nakuru, Kenya - Wander the Planet .net

LAKE NAKURU, KENYA

After we left the Masai village, we drove 4 hours to Lake Nakuru. It's funny how close things look on the map but it takes hella long to get anywhere. The roads are soooooo bad and dusty that for most of it you can't go very fast. Or actually you shouldn't go very fast - but speed demon Sadera wasn't thinking the same thing! There is also the red dust you get to deal with. I think I have red lung (didn't they call it black lung when miners inhaled coal?) - after a 4 hour drive, you are covered in red, fine, dust. I was excited 'cause I thought I got tan but when I took a shower it all washed off! My hair is filthy within 15 minutes - I'm sure I could dred it up in no time!

Anyway, we arrived at our Nakuru campsite for late dinner. Nairobi Backpackers rents camping space from Mbeyehi (spelling?) Lake Resort. We had beds again in tents and got to use the restaurant and bar facilities! We ordered dinner and then the 5 of us sat down to more Tuskers. Mmmmmm! Sadera told us about dating/marriage habits of Masai and then we had to tell him about our countries. It was hysterical! Sadera wanted me to know that if I ever decide to settle down, there are men waiting for me here. Ha ha ha I told him that I would keep that in mind! After dinner, we went to the bar to sit in front of the fire and have more Tuskers. That seems to be a pattern - very bad! We went to bed about 11pm - exhausted and wondering why because all we did was drive and get red lung all day.

On Tuesday, we woke up at 6:40am and had cereal outside of our tents. In the middle

of the night it started POURING and woke us up. So everything was wet - which was good for my red lung (the red dust turned into red mud that you couldn't inhale but could get all over your clothes!). We then drove 15 minutes to Lake Nakuru - the edges of the lake were bright pink. When we passed the gate we ran into a troop of about 60 baboons - one jumped on our hood with ababy hanging on. It was adorable. Then we passed water buffalo - which are one of the most dangerous agressive animals. We made it down to the lake and saw tens of thousands of pink flamingos! It was gorgeous - they make really funny sounds - I had no idea. We got out and walked along the beach but had to get back in the truck because some water buffalo were coming towards us.

Then we drove up to lion hill passing loads of beautiful zebra, white rhinos, buffalos, and those huge stork guys that we saw in Zimbabwe. The campsite packed us a lunch so we ate it overlooking the lake. Wow! It was tremendous! After lunch, we asked Sadera if we could go for coffee instead of drive around more - so he took us to Nakuru Resort and we went to their bar for coffee. We bought Sadera and Kioss coffee and sat for a while at the lodge.

On our way from the lodge, we came upon a lion and his family with a recent Zebra kill. There was a huge male, 2 babies, and 6 lionesses all with fat stomachs lying around. We stopped the truck and watched. The male lion got up and dragged to carcass to us (just 6 feet away). Then the other lions got up and came over and started feeding again. We were wondering if he was showing off his kill. Once you got past all of the blood and the poor zebra head looking at you - it was pretty cool. The male lion was gorgeous! I got some great video clips. One of the babies was playing with the zebras dismembered tail. Ew! Sadera said that he's never seen so many lions at once at Lake Nakuru - there are only 12 in the whole park, so you don't usually see them. We have great safari kharma!

We left Nakuru at 1pm heading back to Nairobi. About 40 minutes into the drive, we got 2 flat tires. So we stopped at a petrol station and Sadera worked on the tires. There were a bunch of little market shops, so we went in search of snacks. We bought fruits and cookies. The fruit here is delicious (and yes I am following the 'only eat fruit you can peel' rule!). After an hour, we were on our way. Kenya is a beautiful country! We passed loads of corn fields, hills, wheat fields, small towns, and Masai herders.

We practiced our Swahili on the drive back - though it is going slow. We use 'bia' (beer) and 'asante sana' (thank you very much) and 'lala salama' (goodnight) and 'ndiyo' (yes) and 'hapana' (no) and 'habari' (how are you). Yes I really need to get some more words down - but I thought beer and thank you would get me through the day pretty well!

We got back to Nairobi Backpackers at 6:30pm - signed up for the 'community dinner' and bought Sadera and Kioss goodbye Tuskers. Sooo sad we had to say goodbye! They were really cool! After the beer, we went in the dining/TV room and had dinner with a Canadian and another Brit. The Canadian got divorced, quit her job, and bought an 'Around the World' ticket - she's on her 7th month and will spend another 3 months in Africa. I'm sooooo JEALOUS! We talked to Ken a bit to get contacts for our next journeys and went to bed around 11pm. I have to say that Nairobi Backpackers is a great place! The people I have met there have all been really cool.

Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley soda lakes. It lies to the south of Nakuru, in central Kenya and is protected by a small Lake Nakuru National Park.

The lake's abundance of algae attracts the vast quantity of flamingos that famously lines the shore.