9-30 Off to Lake Nakuru

Up at the crack of dawn to repack, have breakfast and start the long drive to Lake Nakuru.

We retraced part of the route toward Nairobi then turned off.

I didn’t mention it before, but the day before we left England, I had a very runny nose. I thought it might be allergies. The day we arrived in Kenya I developed a sore throat. That lasted a couple of days. By yesterday morning my throat was fine, but I had developed a deep cough. I feel perfectly fine, I just sound like an escapee from the TB ward. I think the fact that I’ve been breathing in copious amounts of dust is a contributing factor. Anyway, along the road we found a pharmacy where I picked up some cough syrup. About two thirds of the way to Nake Nakuru, we stopped at the equator where we were shown how the

water swirls in different directions as it drains, depending upon whether you’re north or south of the equator, and how at the equator, water doesn’t swirl at all when it drains. I remember when I used to work on the Ocean Princess there would be a big ceremony featuring someone dressed as Neptune when we’d cross the equator at sea. Bruce, it turns out, has never crossed the equator, so we spent about three bucks to get the official certificate to prove it. Bought a brightly colored scarf at the adjoining souvenir shop (which they call a curio shop in Kenya). And yes, no matter where you stop, there’s always an adjoining curio shop.

As we drove, the scenery turned from tan to green. The area in the north around Samburu is very dry and most if the vegetation is brown from the long dry season. The further south we went the greener it got, with lush rolling hills.

Once again at the entrance to the park there was a very long wait. The Kenyan government

has changed their systems to make things more efficient, but they never work properly.

Arrived at our hotel in time for a late lunch and a short break before the afternoon game

drive. Lake Nakuru has risen a lot in the last few years, so the trees which were once at the

edge of the lake are now in it, and dead. The roads were swallowed up and new roads had to be built about 100 yards away. The first animals we spotted in the lake were pink pelicans. They look the same as white ones, they just have a slight rosey tint. Sitting near them were buffalo. There were lots of zebras and impalas as well. Zebras and impalas are pretty much taken for granted by the guides because they’re so numerous but I still find them wonderful. The trees around the lake are called yellow fever acacias. In addition to having a beautiful color, they have a very shallow root system which makes it easy for elephants to push over, but also makes them susceptible to blowing over in high winds.

We drove around the park to the edge of the lake to see more pink pelicans, white storks,

marabou storks, roseate spoonbills, and hundreds of pink flamingos. These are lesser flamingos. No, this is not a judgement call on my part, there are two types of flamingos. Shorter and darker pink than the greater flamingo, lesser flamingos also differ in the coloration of the beak. Lesser flamingos have a deep red bill, tipped with black, whereas the bill of greater flamingos is light pink, tipped with black. The combined birds make wonderful sounds but they were mostly drowned out by the really obnoxious young tourists in the van next to us. They were far more concerned with getting selfies with a cute background than appreciating the birds. SO annoying! As we were leaving, Lemaron spotted a cruiser stuck in the wet sand, so we drove over to help. It was the van of noisy young tourists. Bruce said we should leave them there. The two drivers conferred, a rope was tied to the back of the vehicle and we pulled them out.

Back to the hotel where I collapsed. I sent Bruce off to dinner alone, had a cup of tea in the room and settled in for a long sleep, hoping to shake this cough.

Link to common zebras with uncommonly active tails