Lake Nakuru National Park
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| The old flooded entrance gate |
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| Sopa Nakuru Lodge |
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| View from the bar |
After a long morning of travel we arrived at our next destination Lake Nakuru. After some quick paperwork at the new gate, since the old one flooded and is now partially under the lake, we sped through the forested side of the park towards the Nakuru Sopa Lodge, our base for exploring this park. The road winded way up the escarpment overlooking the lake, and perched ontop was a beautiful collection of stand-alone bungalows and a huge bar and dining area. We arrived just in time to catch the tail end of lunch. Our rooms, 27, 28, and 29 were far enough away from reception to necessitate a golf cart shuttle service, but we were up for a bit of walking. Everyone was pretty amazed once inside the rooms. The view was gorgeous from on top of the escarpment, there was fine woodwork everywhere, and the bathrooms were ludicrously large...complete with what we assumed was a bidet.
It was hard to tear ourselves away from the luxury of our rooms for an afternoon game drive, in fact David decide to stay and soak it all in, but the wildlife called so off we went. It was a pretty auspicious start as it was too rainy to put up the pop-top, but spirits were high, especially since cocktail hour came a little early in the form of some whiskey in a plastic water bottle being passed around. This led to a pretty comical bathroom stop about five minutes into the game drive in less than five star conditions. Luckily the troop of baboons came through about 2 minutes too late to interfer with everyone concentrating on not missing the shot glass side hold in the outhouse floor.
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| Glossy Starling |
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| Rothschild's Giraffes |
With everyone feeling relieved and the rain stopping, everyone started to notice just how much wildlife was around us. Glossy starlings and Rothschild's giraffes peered out from the yellow fever trees. The curved horns of buffalo stuck up from their resting places in the tall golden grass. Different species of eagles line the tops of the trees, especially out towards the open grasslands here in Nakuru.
That is when someone notice a couple of large, light grey rocks out in the middle of the field start to move. It was a mom and baby white rhino. The big 5 was now complete, and the rhino sightings were just getting started. Next we came across five white rhinos in some kid of competition. They would lower their horns and push each other with their massive heads. I was a bit worried that a few eyes might get poked out by some of the bigger horns.
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| Mom and baby white rhino |
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| Hyena vs Warthog |
We watched these rhino battles until someone noticed an animal with a strange loping run further afield. When we approached closer we realized that it was a spotted hyena. Things got even better when the hyena motioned behind and a second hyena appeared. The two then circled a lone warthog who we all thought acted pretty calm despite the current events. Just when it looked like the warthog was just going to let the hyenas have an easy meal it whirled on the closest sending it scampering back. The hyenas were a bit more cautious after this but the warthog stayed calm and collected. With big tusk and a very thick hide there was good reason for this warthog to feel confident. In the end the hyena moved on in search of easier prey.
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| Tree Climbing Lion of Nakuru |
With the sun getting lower we came across a traffic jam that could only mean a big animal sighting. It took us awhile to find the culprit. We hear someone say 'lion', but despite our scanning in the tall grass we couldn't find it. It wasn't until someone looked up that we saw it. A tree climbing lion! This is a pretty rare sight. It stayed pretty far away but we were able to snap some photos and get a good look through the binoculars. It did give chase to some impalas but to no avail.
We must have passed 100 baboons and 200 buffalo milling about in the forest on our way back. At this point our memory cards were full and the bottle of whiskey was empty which were both signs of another good day in Africa.
Remember you can easily find all the posts from this particular safari by entering 'Kenya2018' into the search bar on this site.
After a long morning of travel we arrived at our next destination Lake Nakuru. After some quick paperwork at the new gate, since the old one flooded and is now partially under the lake, we sped through the forested side of the park towards the Nakuru Sopa Lodge, our base for exploring this park. The road winded way up the escarpment overlooking the lake, and perched ontop was a beautiful collection of stand-alone bungalows and a huge bar and dining area. We arrived just in time to catch the tail end of lunch. Our rooms, 27, 28, and 29 were far enough away from reception to necessitate a golf cart shuttle service, but we were up for a bit of walking. Everyone was pretty amazed once inside the rooms. The view was gorgeous from on top of the escarpment, there was fine woodwork everywhere, and the bathrooms were ludicrously large...complete with what we assumed was a bidet. 
It was hard to tear ourselves away from the luxury of our rooms for an afternoon game drive, in fact David decide to stay and soak it all in, but the wildlife called so off we went. It was a pretty auspicious start as it was too rainy to put up the pop-top, but spirits were high, especially since cocktail hour came a little early in the form of some whiskey in a plastic water bottle being passed around. This led to a pretty comical bathroom stop about five minutes into the game drive in less than five star conditions. Luckily the troop of baboons came through about 2 minutes too late to interfer with everyone concentrating on not missing the shot glass side hold in the outhouse floor. 
That is when someone notice a couple of large, light grey rocks out in the middle of the field start to move. It was a mom and baby white rhino. The big 5 was now complete, and the rhino sightings were just getting started. Next we came across five white rhinos in some kid of competition. They would lower their horns and push each other with their massive heads. I was a bit worried that a few eyes might get poked out by some of the bigger horns. 
We watched these rhino battles until someone noticed an animal with a strange loping run further afield. When we approached closer we realized that it was a spotted hyena. Things got even better when the hyena motioned behind and a second hyena appeared. The two then circled a lone warthog who we all thought acted pretty calm despite the current events. Just when it looked like the warthog was just going to let the hyenas have an easy meal it whirled on the closest sending it scampering back. The hyenas were a bit more cautious after this but the warthog stayed calm and collected. With big tusk and a very thick hide there was good reason for this warthog to feel confident. In the end the hyena moved on in search of easier prey. 
We must have passed 100 baboons and 200 buffalo milling about in the forest on our way back. At this point our memory cards were full and the bottle of whiskey was empty which were both signs of another good day in Africa. 
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