African Tour:Lake Nakuru National Park

From Amboseli, Edgar drove me north to Lake Nakuru National Park. This was our single longest drive together outside of any park. The distance between the two is over 350km. It took a little over six hours. For the first half of the drive, I stretched out in the back of the van. During the second half, I stuck my head out the roof. This was also the closest I came to the equator. Lake Nakuru is just over 30km from the equator. Everything else in Kenya was at least 150km south of Lake Nakuru, and South Africa is nowhere near the equator.

The Great Rift Valley cuts all the way through Kenya. At Amboseli, and even Nairobi, the roads are more or less flat. The highest peak in Amboseli is 30 meters, which is a little ironic when you consider that most people associate the park with Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. If you drive west of Nairobi, you hit the Great Rift Valley and the scenery gets a lot more interesting.

During the drive, we took a break on the side of a cliff. Edgar said it was so I could admire the scenery. I think he just needed a break from driving. We sat on rocks in silence while I stared at the valley with an ice cold Pepsi. It was a short break and nothing happened, but it was one of those nice little moments in life.

Lake Nakuru National Park was the smallest park I went to, maybe even the smallest national park in Kenya. While every other park or reserve was out in the wilderness, Lake Nakuru is practically a suburb of Nairobi, completely surrounded by civilization. If it were not a protected national park, all the animals would be gone and the lake would probably be dry by now. The lake itself is about the same size as Pelican Lake in Northern Minnesota. The park is a small ring around the lake. Since no rivers touch the lake, its size depends on how much rain it gets.

The main attraction at Lake Nakuru are the million flamingos that migrate for the algae. It is also one of the easiest places to spot rhinos. Lake Nakuru has 70 white and 25 black rhinos. Kruger has larger numbers, but they are spread out over a much larger area. Lake Nakuru's rhinos graze out in the open. If you drive around the lake, you are going to see rhinos.

I spent two nights at Lake Nakuru Lodge. That did not sound like enough time to me at first, but Lake Nakuru is pretty small. You can easily drive around the entire park in a day. An extra day is good to make more stops, and when you include the beginning of the day before you arrive and the end of the day after you leave, one day would not be enough.

Lake Nakuru Lodge was more or less the same as Ol Tukai, only much smaller and cheaper looking. The main building, lobby, and restaurant were smaller, though the gift shop was larger. It was harder to tell where most of the guest rooms were, but I really did not care. Once again, I was in a small cottage away from the main building. Instead of a front patio, these cottages had tiny balconies in the back. The views were not as good, but at least they faced the park. The Ol Tukai cottage was larger and nicer, but I spent most of my time awake and out of the room anyway. The one thing the Lake Nakuru Lodge had over Ol Tukai was the swimming pool. Lake Nakuru Lodge's swimming pool was bigger and better. More importantly, it has a jacuzzi. Relaxing in bubbling water is always a good idea after a long day of driving around, no matter where in the world you are.

Everyone goes to Lake Nakuru for the flamingos, and there are plenty of them. The lake also attracts thousands of pelicans, storks, and other birds. As the only real source of water in the park, all the animals go to the lake. Compared to other national parks and reserves in Kenya, Lake Nakuru is a little unimpressive. But it is the easiest place to see a wide variety of animals all gathered together in one place. Everyone spreads out in the larger parks. At Lake Nakuru, they are all at the same lake.

The most unusual thing that happened at Lake Nakuru was when a cop asked us for a bribe. We were driving away from the lake when a park ranger stopped us. The ranger got out of his jeep, came up to the van, and looked at me for a while. He never asked me for ID or even spoke to me at all. He wrote something in his notepad and told Edgar to get out of the van. It was almost like a traffic stop, except we were driving slowly on a dirt road in the middle of a national park with absolutely no traffic whatsoever.

Edgar and the ranger had a conversation well out of my earshot. Not that I would have understood their language anyway. When Edgar came back to the van, we drove away as if nothing had happened. When I asked him what that was all about, he calmly told me that the ranger wanted a bribe. The way he said it was more than a little sad. It was just another day at the office to Edgar. I wondered if Edgar's company budgeted for such things or if he had to pay out of his own pocket. I also wondered if such a thing was as common as I suspected. I never asked Edgar about it because I did not want to embarrass him. This was his country and these were his people. I also know that my country is a glass house, so maybe I should not throw any stones.

Lake Nakuru is worth a visit, but it really is more of a bird lover's paradise than anything else. I have nothing against birds, but I am not especially interested in them either. Phil and Margi, the owners of the Blue Jay Lodge in Hazyview were big bird fans. Maybe not Big Bird fans, but bird enthusiasts. They were always trying to tell us the best places to spot this or that bird. I think they would love Lake Nakuru.