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Kenya: Day 12: Lake Nakuru

Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley soda lakes at an elevation of 1754 m above sea level. The lake's abundance of algae attracts the vast quantity of flamingos that famously line the shore. Other birds also flourish in the area, as do warthogs, baboons and other large mammals.

After the breakfast, which was awesome in this hotel, we went immediately into the Lake Nakuru National Park covering an area of 188 188 km2. Entrance fee for this park was 80$ - click, but if you are not a citizen or a resident, you can't do anything about it. Again we saw many animals.

 

Entering the Lake Nakuru National Park

 

Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys

The hadada or hadeda ibis

Male Impala

The grey crowned crane is about 1 m tall and weighs 3.5 kg and a wingspan of 2 m .

 

The crested crane is the national bird in Uganda and is represented in its national flag.

Long-crested eagle is a relatively small eagle (about 55 cm).

 

 

 

Baboon troop

Taking care of himself

The waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

The African buffalo or Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer), is a large African bovine.

Next to the Lake Nakuru

Storks: Yellow-billed storks and a Marabou stork

Other than one of the big five, the buffalo is known as "The Black Death" or "widowmaker", and is widely regarded as a very dangerous animal, as it gores and kills over 200 people every year. Buffaloes are sometimes reported to kill more people in Africa than any other animal, although the same claim is also made of hippos and crocodiles.

Zebras

In recent years, there have been wide variations between the dry and wet seasons' water levels. It is suspected that this is caused by increasing watershed land conversion to intensive crop production and urbanization, both which reduce the capacity of soils to absorb water, recharge ground water and thus increase seasonal flooding.

We did

Carcass

 

Flamingos

 

Flamingos filter-feed on brine shrimp and blue-green algae. Their beaks are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they eat, and are uniquely used upside-down. The filtering of food items is assisted by hairy structures called lamellae which line the mandibles, and the large rough-surfaced tongue. The pink or reddish color of flamingos comes from carotenoids in their diet of animal and plant plankton.

Flying Yellow-billed stork (Mycteria ibis), sometimes also called the wood stork.

Tourist

Flamingos are very social birds; they live in colonies whose population can number in the thousands.

Animo with our Nissan Urvan

 

Baboon mum with a baby

 

Baboon Cliff View Point

Red-headed rock agama

View from the cliff to the lake

Hyrax (Pečinar)

Sometimes it is called the "The Bird Watchers’ Paradise"

On the lookout for a Leopard. Unfortunately we didn't see one.

Zebras near the ranger's post

 

A male impala taking care of his women. Only the males have the characteristic slender, lyre-shaped horns, which can grow to be 45–92 cm long.

You can find 56 different mammal species in Lake Nakuru National Park

Campsite near Makalia Falls

Makalia Falls

Being a member of the big five game family, a term originally used to describe the five most dangerous animals to hunt, the Cape buffalo is a sought-after trophy, with some hunters paying over $10,000 for the opportunity to hunt one. The larger bulls are targeted for their trophy value, although in some areas, buffaloes are still hunted for meat.

Secretarybird builds a nest at a height of 5–7 m on Acacia trees. Both the male and female visit the nest site for almost half a year before egg laying takes place.

Giraffes usually inhabit savannas, grasslands, and open woodlands. Their primary food source is acacia leaves, which they browse at heights most other herbivores cannot reach.

 

The circulatory system of the giraffe has several adaptations for its great height. Its heart, which can weigh more than 11 kg and measures about 60 cm long, must generate approximately double the blood pressure required for a human to maintain blood flow to the brain.

Short history of the park: 1957 - declared a conservation area, 1961 - Southern two thirds designated a bird sanctuary, 1964 - the bird sanctuary was extended covering the whole lake and a small strip of land around it, 1968 - gazetted as National Park, 1977- a number of Rothschild Giraffes translocated to the park from western Kenya for their protection, 1984 - established as first government managed rhino sanctuary, 1986 - an electric fence was erected around the park to replace the earlier chainlink, 1987 - the park was declared a rhino sanctuary, 1990 - the lake was designated as a Ramsar site, 2009 - designated as IBA (450 identified bird species), 2011 – Designated by UNESCO as one of the Kenya Lakes System (Lakes Elementaita, Nakuru and Bogoria) World Heritage Sites

Depending on the season, Lake Nakuru can cover up to about 40 km2

Cormorants by the lake

The white rhinoceros or square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. There are also Black rhinoceroses in the park, but we didn't see them.

Exiting the park

Our safari days were over. Animo, the driver, took us to lunch and then he dropped us off in Nairobi, where we picked up our luggage, that was stored at the safari agency. Our next stop was the police station, where we reported the stolen wallet (read 13280) and then we headed to the bus station. We already had the tickets for a night bus from Nairobi to Malindi. We were quite early, therefore we used that time for quick tea, mandazi and shopping.

Although we had VIP seats, the drive itself wasn't so pleasant, since the driver was the boss of the road, overtaking everything that was slower without looking over other road participants.

On a night bus from Nairobi to Malindi

From Nakuru through Nairobi towards Malindi

Previous days on blog of Kenya travel days with Nada:
Pre-Pre Day, Pre-Day, Day1, Day2, Day3, Day4, Day5, Day6, Day7, Day8, Day9, Day10, Day11.