13 August 2007

Africa Part 2: Lake Nakuru

Our Dutch safari partners were headed to a friends Kenyan wedding, so we dropped them off before we made it to the town of Nakuru. We got there during a bit of a rainfall, and by dinner time the electricity in town went down. That didn't stop the hotel from serving a hot Kenyan dinner(beef/rice/potatoes), or the pub from serving the tasty local beer Tusker around a sea of candles. We took an early nights rest, as we were getting up early to head out for our last safari day.

Lake Nakuru is famous for their Million-plus Pink Flamingos among much other wildlife such as: Rhino, Leopard, Lion, Baboon, Stork, Water Buffalo, and others.

We started the day by seeing a bit of commotion near the ticket booth. As we stood waiting for our guide, we heard shouts of security yelling 'Get Back', as a leopard on the other side of the fence ( about 30 meters away ) sprinted towards our direction. We hightailed it towards the building, but definitely saw the cat jumping and sprinting his way towards us... needless to say, we didn't find the time to snap any fotos!

After that quick scare we slid through the park hearing all the baboons making a fuss over a Lion in a nearby tree. He was just casually resting watching all of us pass.



We then stopped in closer to the lake to meet a few of the pink flamingos that lined the entire 40 Kilometer lake. We snapped a few fotos, but had to jump back in the car as some water buffalo wandered a bit to close to us.





We then stumbled upon some Rhino's and Lion's hanging about. Since our vehicle was fairly alone, we got to get pretty close and snap some cool pics. Was pretty cool seeing the Rhinos just feet from the car!






We then ended the trip on a visit to a high cliff that overlooked the Lake. The baboons are quite familiar with it's beauty ( or more likely the many tourists with food that come up there ) and usually spend their time up there harassing all of us Homo Sapiens. We managed to snap a few fotos, and talked to a German guy about the next safari we should take. He spoke highly of the Gorilla treks in Uganda!! Who's coming with???





Ben, Liz and I then headed back to Nairobi where we spent our last evening in town. Liz and I met a friend (Mohamed) who gave us a detailed tour around town, showing us different parts of the city and taking us to a couple markets. I got a pretty sick chess set carved out of soap-stone.



Liz and I met some great people, learned a bit of the culture, saw some animals and couldn't have had a more enjoyable first African experience... definitely looking forward to going back to spend more time in some other beautiful African countries.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Man Thompson I really hate you for posting these pics, so jealous!!!

Anonymous said...

Adam, or maybe it should be Jeff Corwin.... You rock, dude!!!! I've been following your travels and taking in all your pictures. Do you ever work? I know Roberts & Dybdahl, remember that place?, trained you well, but to travel the world and see all these sights is a whole other gig! You are truly leading a blessed life man!!! Enjoy everything to it's fullest and have that first shot of "Monkey Juice" for me.... whatever the hell that might be....
Be safe, have fun & live life !!!!!