Safari at Lake Nakuru National Park

Got up very early at 5am. Stomach was bad in the night and thought I might have picked up a stomach bug, but thankfully didn't. Had early breakfast with FTs (fellow travellers). Then drove to Naguru Lake park in van driven by Often's son, ‘Rinnuck'. Drove through a Kenyan towns and saw lots of locals going to work. Entered the park. We saw many, many animals along the way including zebra, impala, Thompson’s gazelle, hyena (who was clearly running away from something), buffalo, Eland, baboons (a baboon got into one of the other vans and stole Ganrkelle and her partner's lunch and ate it in a tree above our van.We also saw a python and cobra snakes. We saw thousands of white butterflies, a black rhino from a distance and later we saw several white rhinos along the lake shore on foot with an armed park ranger at very close range which was the highlight of the safari.We also saw flamingos and pelicans, as secretary bird and a large sea bird whose name I can’t remember but I have.a photo. We saw lots of colourful song birds and Guinea fowl. We saw giraffe and in one lovely spot giraffe sitting and behind buffalo and zebra. We saw several eagles. After walking along the lake shore to see  flamingos and pelicans we stopped at a high point with beautiful views over lake Nakuru – below buffalo walked to shore through the lake water – the scene had a primal feel. Rock hyrax came up close to me as well as a bright blue lizard on a rock below. We drove over a broad flat plain with a huge escarpment behind full of animals which also had a ‘dawn of time' feel. We bounced along the road looking out the raised roof and seeing countless animals and birds. We stopped at a large waterfall for lunch. After we took a detour and saw jackals. We stopped at the park’s restaurant and bar for tea which had a beautiful view of the lake. Later, after seeing the white rhinos’ we saw hyenas hunting and a jackal eating a hyena kill. As we returned we saw hippos mostly hidden beneath the water and a huge troupe of baboons. We returned to the campsite through the Kenyan rush hour – it was fascinating to see all the people living their lives – I wondered what their lives would have been like before modernisation? Returned to camp and had dinner – I felt exhausted on the trip back to camp and had a crisis of confidence about whether I could make it through the whole 93 days with such a pace of activities and intensity of activities? I decided to look after myself and bow out of Sam's evening.quiz.Read more