Rift Valley Lakes and Safari Lodges
Africa’s great Rift Valley is visible from space, and it is home to the most dramatic scenery on earth, but it is in Kenya where the Rift Valley is really on show.
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There is a place in Africa where the wound of a great rupture promises abundant life in its healing life. It is a place of brooding mountains, of Great Plains, and whispering lakes—a place that attracts a diversity of life to be the birthplace of consciousness in mankind.
Echoes of our Past
Lakes of pink, mountains of the moon, and plains of plenty are all part of this natural wonder we know today as the Great Rift Valley. It is a place that echoes our past, a place where the faraway memories of our beginnings rise from the deep recesses of our subconscious and send shivers through the body.
But it is also a place of breathtaking beauty, and this beauty is nowhere better illustrated than in the Kenyan Rift Valley Lakes, where wildlife is prolific and the birdlife is beyond compare.
The Great Rift Valley stretches from the Arabian Peninsula down the continent into Southern Africa. Before entering Kenya, the valley splits into the Western or Central African rift and the Eastern rift, which stretches through Kenya.
Eight lakes make up the Kenya Rift Valley Lake system, two of which are fresh water and the rest alkaline. The large flocks of flamingoes for which the Kenyan lakes are well known are found on the alkaline soda lakes, feeding on tiny crustaceans.
The eight lakes that make up the Kenyan Rift Valley are:
Lake Turkana is the world’s largest alkaline lake and the furthest north of Kenyan lakes.
Lake logipi a shallow hot spring-spring fed soda lake south of Lake Turkana
Lake Baringo is freshwater and the second largest of the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes.
Lake Baringo a shallow soda lake and now a national reserve
Lake Nakuru—shallow soda lake—and now a national park since 1968
Lake Elementainta – shallow soda lake
Lake Naivasha is freshwater and the highest of all the Rift Valley lakes at 1884 m above sea level.
Lake Magadi a Shallow soda lake near the southern border with Tanzania
There are four lakes in Tanzania that are part of the Rift Valley Lake System, and they include the alkaline lakes Natron, Manyara, Eyasi, and lastly Makati.
Even though Lake Bogoria, Lake Nakuru, and Lake Elementainta in Kenya have been made as individual protected areas, they are collectively recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, The Kenya Lake System.
