Lake Nakuru National Park

Since Lake Nakuru NP is Kenya`s most popular NP and with good reason. It`s a great place to see rhinos and sightings of lions and leopards can be done. It`s also easy to reach: the entrance is very close to the city of Nakuru. Centered on a large, shallow lake that supports big birdlife including pelicans and flamingos, the park has experienced dramatically fluctuating water levels in recent years. This can affect everything from flamingo populations to trail access.

WILDLIFE

Lake Nakuru offers easy wildlife viewing on most big safaris except elephants. Black and white rhinos were reintroduced in the 1980s and have always been easy to see on the western lakeshore. Rothschild`s giraffes, buffalos, and hippos are numerous as good. In luck, visitors might view lions which occasionally climb trees. leopards are present and if you`re lucky you`ll see one.

SCENERY

For a small park, Lake Nakuru is breathtaking, with the rift valley escarpment, dotted with euphorbia trees, rising from the lakeshore. Heavy mist sometimes shrouds the lake and yellow fever trees which seem to glow in the early morning. Viewing from the Out of Africa lookout is a close from the film `Out of Africa`.

ACTIVITIES

The general activity in Lake Nakuru is the guided game dives, in which usually you explore the park for wildlife watching and birding. In the park`s south, you see reasonably impressive Makalia Falls where waters cascade through a cleft in the rock surrounded by acacia forest. If you`re staying at The Face, a luxury tented camp perched on the edge of the escarpment you can also enjoy a boat excursion on the lake.

 

WEATHER& CLIMATE

Despite being near the equator, it rarely gets hot at Lake Nakuru with temperatures peaking around 28oC/82oF in the first few months of the year. It is the, especially in the morning when you`ll need your warmest clothing for the game drives. the dry season stretches from June to February while the brief wet season from March to May is at its dampest in April.

BEST TIME TO VISIT

The problem with wildlife watching in the wet season March to May is that animals disperse when the rains come. that`s not an issue at lake Nakuru yearly because the national park is ringed by fencing. Still, the wet weather has been known to spoil more than a few game drives, so might want to visit in the dry months of the year from June to February.