Kenya’s Lake Nakuru National Park: A Photo Story of Wild Riches

It is a place where you can see hundreds of thousands of flamingos in one view making it one of the most famous bird spectacles in the world. It is a stronghold for both of Africa’s endangered rhino species. It is one of Kenya’s top wildlife destinations that is also a bird lover’s paradise. It is an important pitstop on the African – Eurasian migratory flyway. It is home to the big five and other animal and bird species. And it is one of Kenya’s lakes system UNESCO world heritage sites. I am talking about Lake Nakuru national park, a Ramsar wetland that is nestled in the vast Rift valley. This national park is a wildlife enthusiast’s delight and a stay of a few nights here is enough to wow you with its wildlife riches and panoramic beauty. This photo story aims at showing you the diversity of this rich ecosystem though these varied wildlife and bird photos shot here during a Kenya wildlife safari holiday.

Above photo: Flamingos gather at Lake Nakuru by the millions. There is something about the Rift valley lakes that appeal to these birds and the sight of them feeding and flying together in millions is a sight for the ages.



Above photo: Apart from flamingos, other water birds like Great white pelicans, african spoonbills and others can be seen at Lake Nakuru in huge numbers. Most of these birds migrate to the lakes of the Rift valley from Europe every year.



Above photo: The grassland surrounding Lake Nakuru is fertile and is made up of highly adaptable alkaline grasses, which attract herbivores in hoards. This is an example of a common zebra chomping on these delicious grass.



Above photo: This is another instance of a herbivore enjoying the grasslands surrounding Lake Nakuru. All herbivores thrive in healthy numbers in this national park.



Above photo: This olive baboon family can be seen enjoying the morning sun on the jeep track inside Lake Nakuru national park. These olive baboon families are rowdy in nature and the males can fight any animal, however large when threatened.



Above photo: Lake Nakuru national park is home to 400 species of birds. And one of them is this vibrant yellow-billed stork that can seen feeding in the shallow waters of the lake.



Above photo: Egyptian Goose, another migratory visitor, fills up new colours in your camera viewfinder.



Above photo: Black faced velvet monkeys are playful in nature and are commonly seen at Lake Nakuru National Park. Other primates that can be easily spotted here are olive baboons and colobus monkeys.



Above photo: The star attractions of Lake Nakuru national park are the greater and lesser flamingos that congregate here in millions. It feels as if the whole horizon is dressed in different shades of pink.



Above photo: The shallow algae rich waters of Lake Nakuru attract more than 2 million flamingos. The biggest numbers can be seen during the dry season. When the lake is full, the flamingos are known to migrate to another Rift valley lake, Lake Bogoria or sometimes Lake Turkana.



Above photo: Wildlife, bird and nature photographers like Lake Nakuru for its amazing flamingo photography. And you don’t have to travel a lot inside Lake Nakuru unlike the other national parks of Kenya, which ensures that you get lots of animal and bird photos with minimal hassle.



Above photo: A fluffy pied crow perched on top of a dead tree branch at Lake Nakuru national park. A common citizen here, the pied crow looks exactly like a crow, but with the added white colour chest jacket.



Above photo: This is the baboon cliff view point inside Lake Nakuru national park. It is situated in the middle of the park and offers great vistas of the lake and the surrounding hills and forests.



Above photo: Lake Nakuru is one of the few places in East Africa where one can see Rothschild’s giraffe in the wild. The population of this giraffe at Nakuru is the second highest after Murchison Falls national park in Uganda and the largest in Kenya.



Above photo: The common zebra exists in healthy numbers in Lake Nakuru national park and seem to love the grasslands here.



Above photo: If hippos interest you, go near the mouth of the Makalia, Njoro or Enderit rivers as the hippos like the freshwater that the river brings. Do keep a safe distance from the hippos as they are known to get aggressive.



Above photo: A dozen white and about 20 black rhino were translocated to Lake Nakuru in the 1990s and have since bred to form populations or around 100s of each species. The white rhino in particular is common on the lake’s southern floodplain.



Above photo: The best place to see the cape buffalo (one of the big five of Kenya) is in the swamps next to the lake. In all probability, you will see the buffalo wallowing in the mud.

Other nearby tourist attractions:

1) Samburu Tribe: One of the colourful tribes of Kenya

2) Samburu National Reserve: An Oasis of Wildlife in Arid North Kenya

3) Thomson’s Falls: A stunning waterfall at Nyahururu

4) Nanyuki’s Equator Point: A great place to understand the Coriolis effect

5) Maasai Mara’s Great Migration: 8th Wonder of the world

6) Maasai Tribe: The tribal people of Maasai Mara Game Reserve

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The Colourful Samburu Tribe of Kenya: A Travel Photo Series

They are related to the famous Maasai tribe living in the Maasai Mara game reserve in Kenya. They are one of the more dominating tribes of north-central Kenya. They are semi-nomadic pastoralists who mainly herd cattle, but also keep sheep, goats and camels. I am talking about the colourful Samburu tribe who live north of the equator in Kenya and live in very diverse and beautiful landscapes that span high altitude forests, open plains, semi-arid grass and bush land to complete desert. One of their main settlements is on the fringes of Samburu National Park in North Kenya and this is where I met them. Experiencing the Samburu National reserve and the Samburu tribe becomes a beautiful one-two combo for a rich wildlife and culture experience.

This travel photo series aims to share with you the colourful personalities and traditional life of the beautiful Samburu tribal people. Hope you enjoy these vibrant visuals of these gorgeous tribal people of Kenya.

Above picture: The Samburu tribe is known for its colourful beadwork jewellery. Here you can see a Samburu woman wearing such colourful head and neck bead jewellery.



Above picture: Samburu men also adorn themselves with such colourful bead jewellery making them fantastic looking male models too.



Above picture: Here is another Samburu tribal woman sporting colourful beadwork necklace, ear rings and head gear. The concentric rings on the necklace makes her look similar to the long necked Karen tribal women of Myanmar, but thankfully their necks have not been lengthened.



Above picture: Seen in this photo is a game with seeds and compartments played only by the elderly men of the Samburu tribe. This game is very similar to Pallanguzhi, a traditional ancient mancala game played in South India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala.



Above picture: It is said that the more beads or necklaces are there on a woman, the more beautiful she is considered. Another point on the same line of thought is that, women wore more necklaces as they got richer. Therefore, the number of beads or necklaces indicate status in society, richness level and beauty.



Above picture: The Samburu people speak the Samburu language, which is a Nilo-Saharan language. Their language is more or less similar to Maa (the language that the Maasai speak). The Samburu tongue is also related to Turkana and Karamojong and more distantly to Pokot and the Kalenjin languages.



Above picture: Like all kids, the Samburu kids are also full of energy and innocent smiles. They can be seen wearing Western attire.



Above picture: The elders occupy a very important role in the Samburu society and all the power rests with them. They have a polygamous system where the elders decide who can marry and can have how many wives. This kind of control keeps trouble at rest or at least that is the belief.



Above picture: In the Samburu tribe, the men take care of security, cattle herding and playing mock fight games to improve their warrior skills.



Above picture: While the Samburu women take care of things like building houses, collecting firewood and food from the forest, cooking food, taking care of the young ones and in doing craftsmanship.



Above picture: The Samburu love to sing and dance, but traditionally use no instruments. They have dances for various occasions of life. The men dance jumping and high jumping from a standing position is a great sport. Most dances involve the men and the women dancing in their separate circles with particular moves for each sex, but coordinating the moves of the two groups. A lot of their dances involve elaborate movements of their chest.



Above picture: Girls get married pretty early. Sometimes before they turn 18. Both boys and girls go through an initiation into adulthood, which involves training in adult responsibilities and circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls. Ouch!



Above picture: If you wish to marry a Samburu woman, all you have to do is give the chief of the village 2 cows. That is how weddings happen in the Samburu culture.



Above picture: The hard working Samburu woman. She works in the forest, inside the house and in the manyatta or settlement.



Above picture: A typical Samburu house is built by the wives of that house using sticks, mud, dung and plastic (for waterproofing).

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Lake Nakuru National Park: Kenya’s Diverse Ecological Hotspot

It is a place where one can see the most fabulous bird spectacle in the world. It is a national park where one can spot most of Africa’s rich wildlife. It is one of Kenya’s two premium national parks and is a bird lover’s paradise. I am talking about Lake Nakuru national park, a Ramsar Wetland that is nestled in the vast great Rift valley.
   
     
    
Designated by UNESCO as one of Kenya’s lakes system world heritage sites, Lake Nakuru National Park is home to one of the world’s highest concentrations of the Black Rhinoceros. It’s ecosystem is comprised of lake surrounded by wooded and bushy grasslands. The lake is saline, which allows growing of many types of algae and the surrounding grassland is made up of highly adaptable alkaline grasses.   
   
     
    
It is this diverse ecosystem that makes it an important pitstop on the African – Eurasian migratory flyway. The star bird attractions are the Greater and the Lesser Flamingos, but one can also see yellow-billed storks, marabou storks, hammerkops, fish eagles, helmeted guineafowls, great white pelicans, African spoonbills, grey headed gulls, super starlings and close to 400 species of birds .
   
     
    
In terms of the other wildlife, one is guaranteed to see white rhinos, African buffalos, Rothschild giraffes, zebras, impalas, olive baboons, velvet monkeys, waterbucks, hippopotamuses, hyenas and jackals. And if you are lucky, you might even get to see lions, leopards, black rhinos, wild dogs, colobus monkeys and cheetahs. Apart from the African elephants, one can almost see all of Africa’s rich wildlife if they are staying inside the park for a few days.    
   
     
    
It is this insanely beautiful combination of plants, birds and rich wildlife that make Lake Nakuru national park so special. Add to it, its dusty jeep safaris and the panoramic vistas from Baboon cliff, Out of Africa and lion hill and you have a stunning African wildlife destination.    
   
     
    
A wildlife safari at Lake Nakuru national park begins by the lake side at around sunrise. As the mist lifts from the surface of the water, you get to see a large maze of pink in the horizon. As the mist goes up and the golden rays of the sun fall on it, your eyes get treated to millions of lesser and greater flamingos that feed on the algae. And when you get closer to these gorgeous birds, you will see them take to the air, in the thousands together before descending on another stretch of the lake to continue feeding there. And this process continues, making for a fabulous spectacle.    
   
     
    
Once you move your attention away from the flamingos, you will notice the thousands of other water birds sharing the waters of the lake. They might not be as great a spectacle as the pink flamingos, but they offer diversity and fill up new colours in your viewfinder. And then there are the water buffalos that can be seen sharing the waters too.
   
     
    
And you make your way into the woodlands, you will come across more grazers like the impalas, the black and the white rhinoceros and finally the gorgeously printed Rothschild Giraffe chomping on the juicy leaves of the trees in the woods.

     
    
In between, you can also lay your sights on rowdy olive baboon families or the more playful black velvet monkeys. And if you get lucky, you might be able to spot some apex predators such as the leopards, cheetahs, lions or wild dogs.
   
     
    
And if you have some snacks or a picnic lunch with you, you can drive to the panoramic view points and enjoy the beautiful views at high noon while relishing a much needed bite after a whirlwind morning full of bird and animal sightings. These view points are also a great place to get a bird’s eye view of this diverse ecological hotspot while enjoying the cooler breeze during the hot part of the day.
   
     
    
As the sun starts making its way down, you can return to the woodlands, grasslands or the lake for more wildlife action before retiring to your place of stay within the national park or head out of the gate to the land beyond. And did I tell you that you can also go on a hike to a waterfall here. It is called Makalia falls and it carries decent amount of water during the wet season.
   
     
    
Lake Nakuru national park is nothing short of wild miracle. It is one of Kenya’s most diverse ecological hotspots and a place that I much recommend for all wildlife and bird lovers. Do ensure that you stay here for at least two days so that you give yourselves the best chance to see all of its magic.     
   
     
    
Fees and permits:

The fee per foreign national adult is USD 60 and USD 35 per foreign national child or student. If you are foreign adult residents of Kenya, the fee is KSH 1030 and KSH 515 for child or student.



In addition to the entry fees, there is a vehicle fee too and that depends on the vehicle and its number of seats. 
   
    
    
How to reach:      
     
If you are driving from Nairobi, take the Naironi-Nakuru highway. This is a scenic route and will give you good views of the Rift valley and the volcanoes. The total distance is 168 kms and will take you about 3 hours. It is best to have your own mode of transportation.

If you wish to fly, it is a 25 minute flight from Nairobi to the Naishi airstrip inside the national park.    
   


Best season to visit:    
    
The best season to visit Lake Nakuru national park is between July to December or January to March. These months also happen to be the peak tourist season and the dry season.

If you don’t mind some rains, you can visit during the other months of the year. These months also happen to be the low season.   
   


Where to stay:    
    
If you wish to stay inside the park, your only options are five star hotels. If you are okay with staying outside the park boundary, you will find budget hotels and backpacker hostels. There are also special and public campsites where you can pitch in your own tents. These campsites are basic, but they offer a stay in the wild experience.

If you are on a full on wildlife experience, I would recommend staying at the five star hotels so that you don’t have to drive long distances every day and can spend more time spotting and photographing wildlife. If budget is an issue, then you will have to stay outside the park. But, you can compensate by walking up real early in the morning to make it to the core of the national park at sunrise.   
   


Where to eat:    
    
There are a few restaurants outside the park boundary where you can find some basic food options. Your best bet for food would be your place of stay. And self-cooking in case you are camping.

Nakuru town is a good option in case you wish to indulge in local cuisine at local prices.
   


Other wildlife reserves nearby:    
    
1) Hell’s Gate National park: A small national park known for its wide range of wildlife and for its cliff scenery

2) Lake Naivasha: A fresh water lake that is part of the Great Rift valley and that is home to more than 400 species of birds and a sizeable population of hippos



3) Aberdare National Park: A high altitude national park that is home to a large variety of birds and mammals

4) Mount Kenya National park: A high altitude national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site

5) Maasai Mara: The 8th wonder of the world and home to one of the greatest wildlife migration in the world

6) Samburu National Reserve: An oasis of wildlife in arid North Kenya

7) Lake Elmenteita: It is a Ramsar site, an UNESCO World heritage site and home to over 400 species of birds
   


Other tourist attractions nearby:    
   
1) Nairobi: The capital city, commercial and cultural hub

2) Nanyuki Equator Point: A great place to keep one step in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern hemisphere



3) Hyrax hill: It is a prehistoric site in the Rift valley province of Kenya

4) Menengai crater: It is a massive shield volcano with one of the biggest calderas in the world

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