Kenya's Nakuru National Park

 Entry to Nakuru National Park

Having left the Nairobi hotel mid morning, our tour guide, Jafar, drove us along the wide rough roads of Nairobi's outskirts. My mind was torn in two as I tried to both take in the busy shops, that bordered the road, and also see what birds were flying around overhead. I honestly think that two eyes are just not enough, for me anyway. 

The Saturday morning shoppers of Nairobi were out in force, either selling or buying their weekly goods. 
Looking overhead I periodically stopped to fiddle with my phone trying to find out what kind of birds I might be seeing. I saw Pied Crows, and was sad there was not time for photographing them, and the many vultures? Gak! Hopefully there will be plenty of time for better looks. 

When we passed out of Nairobi, the scenery was largely bereft of people, but it was green and lush. 

Along the way, as promised by Jafar, we had a rest break, 2 hours into our drive to Nakuru.
We stopped at a massive tourist stop. There were umpteen travel companies also there. 

The rest stop was a cute shop with loads of everything touristy

AARRGGHH! Where to even begin looking....

Out of everything I saw at the store, what I wanted most was what would be most difficult to traipse around with for 2 weeks -  a nice, big Ostrich Egg!

Another item too... large(?) to transport was a carved wooden Cape Buffalo, scratching his chin with his hind hoof, and showing off those masculine bollocks. 

Our drive continued and we saw some cool animals as a side benefit. Giraffes, a Black Rhino, Thompson's Gazelles and lots of Warthogs.

Black Rhino pretty far off, to the left

Wart Hogs

It was around 1 PM when we reached the entrance to Nakuru (photo at top), with its Rhino entry gate.The minute our van halted, I was out, and looking for birds. 

Eurasian Hoopoe

 I actually gasped, when I spotted a  Hoopoe, hopping around on the lawn. The Hoopoe is a bird I never thought I'd see in this lifetime. I remember reading about them eons ago, having read about the strange little bird in James Michener's The Source. 

I could have stared at - and photographed the Hoopoe all day, but Jafar came to collect me so the group could be on its way.

Less than an hour later, we arrived at Sankara Lion Hill, adjacent to Nakuru National Park. 

Our group was escorted to the reception area. There we got our cabin assignments, and our luggage was then portered to our rooms. 
                                                              Our assigned room was a distance from, but not too far from the receptionists area. We were told the mosquito netting would be lowered over our beds in the evening as a courtesy (even though Ila and I have yet to see any mosquitos!).

Our room had a little patio area to sit & bird watch ('moi') or just relax (Ila). 

The next agenda item was lunch, which took place in an exceeding large, open sided banquet facility.

The hostess assigned our group to a long row of tables, which is ours now for our meals today. 

Entrance area of the huge dining hall

All around were various stations where many different foods were ready for loading onto one's plate. It was difficult to choose what to eat! Indian, Kenyan or British food? Salads, soups or regular entrees?

From the dozens and dozens of offerings, decided to have
the grilled lamb, the stew and 'Papadums', a cracker bread.

I am not about to starve to death on this vacation. There was plenty of time, as we were all on our own until our evening game drive at 4:30. So I chatted with my travel group, enjoyed my lunch, then took a walk to check out the local birds.

I did not have to wander far. Just outside the dining area was a branch (center photo) 
hung between 2 trees. The branch was carved out on top and filled with bird food goodies. 

Hanging over the feeding trough was a big sign listing all the birds one might see. Now, obviously the trick was to be able to attach a name to the correct bird. And honestly, so many birdies, so little time! Here are a few that showed up.

White-browed Robin Chat

Vitelline Masked-Weaver

Greater Blue-eared Starling

Red-billed Firefinch

I feasted on seeing new birds for more than an hour, then wandered back to our cabin to view birds from the 'front porch'. Later I visited the Sarova Lion Hill gift shop, treating myself to a tee-shirt. Then when 4:30 rolled around, we were all off on our evening's Game Drive. 

Savaro Lion Hill is near to Nakuru lake and we headed for the lake. The drive however began overlooking forested areas. 

Impala

Impressive horns on an Impala Buck

Olive Baboons were scattered everywhere at Nakuru

Water Bucks and a few Zebra

No need to identify this hooved beauty

I hadn't expected to be impressed by Zebra, but wow, they are striking and outrageous in their stark colors. I asked Jafar which species, of the 3 known zebra species, these were, and I was told Imperial Zebra. That puzzled me as I never heard that name before. I think these pajama-clad asses are what used to be called Grevy's Zebra. 

And speaking of species, we had a look at our 2nd species of Rhinos - White Rhinos. They were in a muddy puddle, and absolutely not white. The mouths of this species are broad, hense 'wide', and that morphed into 'white' - a misnomer.  Black Rhinos have a hook-like upper lip, in no way 'wide'. 

Two White Rhinos in a mud puddle

Female Impala near Lake Nakuru's shore 

Many Great White Pelicans and cormorants were lolling down by the water.

The lighting was horrible, but there were many Great White Pelicans

And then, there they were - a bjillion flamingos! The first wild ones I've ever seen. Jafar told us there were 2 species out there - Greater Flamingos and Lesser Flamingos.

Greater & Lesser Flamingos - not that I could tell one from the other!

I felt rather boggled, because the bright light reflecting off the water bleached out the details of the birds. I hope I get a better chance to stare at and ID the flamingos at a later date on this trip. 

Cape Teals (Ducks) identified a
long time after spotting them

Naturally Flamingos weren't the only birds around. There were lots of herons, ducks, shorebirds and gulls. I started shooting photos of everything I could get a shot of. Photos today, identification at my leisure

Lake Nakuru

Saddle-billed Stork & to its right, a ensy Wood Sandpiper

One or two more pelicans in the front, with 
lots of Flamingos in the far distance 

                                                             

White-faced Whistling Ducks

My noggin was in absolute overload with the birds and game that we saw. Then we hit the big time. Jafar located some more 'big game' for us. My very first WILD African Lion. WAKE UP YOU King of Beasts! I'm joking of course, we were all thrilled to the core to see the lion. 

'Yes, I'm the King of....ZZZZZZZzzzzzz'

A bit further off was a second lion, awake I suppose, keeping guard for his weary brother. 

Both Mufasa & Scar are in this photo - find them for yourself

Our van was one of about a half dozen that enjoyed viewing the lions. I honestly had zero expectations of seeing any lions or other big cats on this trip. Oh yee of little faith. 

Red-billed Oxpeckers

Almost as entrancing as the lions was seeing little Oxpeckers grooming the Zebras, picking insects and whatnot from the Zebra's hide. 

 
I think I'm mostly fascinated that watching the little birds pecking all the hell over other animals doesn't seem to creep me out as much as one would expect. UGH! OK, it's a wee bit creepy. 

Oxpecker doing a little 'pit' work 

The Zebras all looked a bit bored with their 'detailing' crews

Mom Olive Baboon with a baby on board

Tawny Eagle

African Fishing Eagle

Whew! It was getting dark when we finally headed back to Sarova Lion Hill for a nice dinner and a chance all to get acquainted with our cabins. We saw so much wildlife today, it is difficult to imagine we are going to see much more on our trip. I must have seen a zillion new bird species and I got photos of pretty much every last one. Tomorrow we head out to Kenya's Maasai Mara. 

Here is a mercifully short video of the White Rhinos and some Tommies.