Nakuru National Park

Nakuru National Park surrounds Lake Nakuru, a small (approximately 5 to 30 km²), shallow, alkaline lake on the edge of Nakuru town and situated in the Great Rift Valley. The lake is world famous as the location of one of the greatest bird spectacles on earth - millions of flamingos coming to feed on the abundant algae, which thrives in the warm alkaline waters of the lake. Wearing their vermicelli stockings the flamingos paint the shores of the lake a spectacular pink. The lake is also rich in other birdlife, with over 400 resident species on the lake and in the surrounding park. Thousands of pelicans, cormorants, little grebes and white winged black terns are frequently seen, as are fish eagles, stilts, avocets, ducks and, in the European winter, the migrant waders.

The lake is fringed by alkaline swamps, which give way to bushy grassland and woodland with characteristic yellow-barked acacia trees. Nakuru National Park provides a sanctuary for black rhino and the park now boasts one of the largest concentrations of both black and white rhino in the country. In addition, Rothschild's giraffe peer out over the treetops and herds of curious buffalo, waterbuck, zebra and impala are frequently sighted, not to mention the opportunistic vervet monkeys and olive baboons. Predators include lion, leopard and hyena, which are often seen stalking flamingos on the lake.

Nakuru NP lies 160 km north west of Nairobi and can be reached either by road (approximately 2½ hours) or 25 minutes by private charter plane.