Travel Eye on Lake Nakuru (Kenya)

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Overview:

Nakuru is one of the alkaline Rift Valley lakes and a fantastic bird sanctuary, its shores populated at times by more than one million flamingoes. The famous ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson defined it as "the greatest bird spectacle on earth". The fortunate sentence has now become a cliché and is used up to fed-up-ism for promotional purposes. Sadly, along the past years flamingoes have vanished sporadically to reappear later in a similarly weird way, but flocks are now greatly reduced.

The park was gazetted in 1968, but since 1961 there was a bird sanctuary at the lake's south sector. With the support of the World Wildlife Fund, Kenyan government started a plan to purchase the adjacent grounds in order to widen the protected area. In 1964 the sanctuary yet included the whole lake, whose surface varies from 5 to 40 km², in addition to a shore strip. Since its gazetting as a national park, both authorities and conservation organisations have kept on winning the battle to private property and human settlings, further broadening the park limits in 1968 and 1974 to its current extension of 188 km².

Locality:

The park lies only 4 km off the populous Nakuru town. This poses various consequences, almost all negative for the conservation of this natural area. After Nairobi National Park, this is the second most accessible park, since Nakuru is the fourth city in the country and the headtown of the Rift Valley. Hence the park receives a high visitor number, more than 100,000 every year, of which a great proportion corresponds to Kenyan citizens and residents.

Entertainment/Facilities/Attractions/Things to do:

The park covers the lake and a land strip around the northern, eastern and western shores, whereas southward the grounds extend farther to Makalia Falls, which define the south limit. The shores are surrounded by swamps, that during the driest seasons disappear to give rise to huge white salt crusts. The riverine forest opens up southward in a bush and acacia tree savannah. The eastern and western shores are framed by ridges that offer splendid lookouts over the lake: Lion Hill, Baboon Cliff and Out of Africa. At the west shore, Baboon Cliffs are the preferred habitat for some of the park's species, while at east, a part of Lion Hill is covered by a magnificent Euphorbia or candle tree forest, giving the landscape a prehistoric look. The park hosts several picnic areas and some hides have been erected nearby the lake for bird observation.

In addition to birds and rhinos, the park is home for a large number of mammals, including carnivores such as lions and leopards.

The short distance to the city and the frequent conflicts between environment conservation and development of the local communities have prompted a number of projects aiming at improving life conditions in the area and providing the residents a chance to meet this unique wildlife refuge. Kenya Wildlife Service has financed programs for health and education, namely for building classrooms and dispensaries, purchasing equipment and books, etc. On the other hand, the park owns a bus which offers low-priced guided tours to the park for Nakuru residents.