Lake Nakuru National Park

Lake Nakuru National Park

Lake Nakuru National Park provides the visitor with one of Kenya’s best known images – thousands of flamingo, joined into a massive flock, fringe the shores of this soda lake. A pulsing pink swathe of life that carpets the water, the flamingo are a breathtaking sight. The lake has become world famous for these birds, who visit the lake to feed on algae that forms on the lake bed. They move back and forth, feeding and occasionally and spectacularly taking to flight, filling the sky over the lake with colour.

The lake is extremely variable in size- changing from 5 up to 30 sqkms in area.

Nakuru has more than just flamingos…

This is a major National Park and an important sanctuary for Rhino. Both Black and White Rhino are found here, and are often seen resting under acacias by the Lake shore.

The park abounds with game. There are huge herds of Waterbuck, Zebra, Buffalo, the endangered Rothschild Giraffe and more. This is one of your best chances of seeing Leopard in Kenya, and there are several large prides of Lion. Exploring beyond the lake is always rewarding and there are forests, cliffs, waterfalls and more to be found here.

Nearby Nakuru town is a busy and thriving local centre with a bustling market.

Lake Nakuru is a shallow strongly alkaline lake set in a picturesque landscape of surrounding woodland and grassland. The landscape includes areas of marsh and grasslands alternating with rocky cliffs and outcrops, stretches of acacia woodland and rocky hillsides covered with a Euphorbia forest.

The lake’s catchment is bounded by Menengai crater to the north, the Bahati hills to the north east, the lion hill ranges to the east, eburu crater to the south and the mau escarpment to the west.

Three rivers, the Njoro, Makalia and Enderit drain into the lake.

Lake Nakuru was first gazetted as a bird sanctuary in 1960 and upgraded to National Park status in 1968. A northern extension was added to the park in 1974 and the lake was designated as a Ramsar site in 1990.

The foundation of the park’s food chains is the cyanophytespirulinaplatensis which can support huge numbers of lesser flamingo. During peak season over one million flamingos congregate on the lake plus half a million pelicans.

The Park also contains Kenya’s largest population of rhinos.The surface of the lake occupies about a third of the park. The lake supports a dense bloom of the blue-green CyanophyteSpirulinaplatensis from which it derives its colour. It is a food source for flamingos. The lake is fringed by alkaline swamps with areas of sedge, cypruslaevigatus and typha marsh along the river inflows and springs.

The surrounding areas support a dry transitional savanna with lake margin grasslands.

Climatic conditions – Warm and dry

Wildlife – Birds: Up to 1.5 million flamingos plus 450 other species of birds. Fauna includes Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelle, the rare long-eared leaf-nosed bat, colobus monkey, rock hyrax, hippo, leopard, lion, rhino, waterbuck, impala, gazelle, striped hyena, bat-eared fox, wild cat, reedbuck and golden cat.

Restocked mammals include the lion, black and white rhino and the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe.

Best time to visit – All year round

Activities – Bird watching, camping, picnic, finest views of the lake from Baboon Cliff, Lion Hill and Out of Africa Hill

Lake Nakuru Safari