It’s goodbye to the plains today as we move on to Lake Nakaru. If you’ve ever seen those pictures of thousands of flamingos crowded over a lake – this is it!
There’s a road that takes us in a nice straight line from where we are in the Masai Mara, but William says the road is “very bad” and we can’t use it. Coming from him, I can hardly imagine the state of the road we want to use. So we must head back towards Nairobi, along the rocky, lumpy, crummy road we came on, and then head north west towards Lake Nakaru on the main road from Nairobi to Uganda. At least it’s all on sealed roads, but two sides of the triangle is very African. The impatience of most drivers on the Kenyan roads beggars belief, and the overtaking techniques are rivaled only by the Spanish, who like to make a road built for two cars wide, fit three cars when they choose.

We hit a rock too many on safari yesterday, and started the day with a leaking diff. The workshop at the lodge had us on the road only a couple of hours late.

The thing about a lot of third world countries is that there is always a construction department, but rarely a maintenance department. So in a nutshell, things are rarely serviced, painted or repaired. Like the guard rails along the precarious road edge, that have been wiped out by a vehicle (I hope it saved the driver), and remain a mangled mess. Or the toilets that once worked. The window that was once not broken. The bowser that used to pump diesel. The painted sign where the paint was once not peeled off. The road that once had no pot holes. All these things make it the experience we love.

So we made it to Lion Hill Lodge on the banks of Lake Nakaru, and here’s the deal on the flamingo thing. Due to the high rainfall this season, the lake is rather full. This presents two problems. One is the fact that the flamingos like the water knee deep (no sign of that) and the other is that the normally salty water is rather on the freshwater side due to being diluted by the rain. And that means that there’s not much algae to eat, which is what the flamingos like to eat, so they’ve upped and gone to some other lake. How’s that for annoying? Tourist based thinking that is.

Well, we’re not too fussed. William has “guaranteed” that we will see rhinoceroses here, and that’s a big call from any guide. He showed his colours today, when we went for a late afternoon safari.
The lions here are a different type to the ones in the Masai Mara. These lions  like to rest in trees, mainly on the low lying branches. This has contributed to the decline in the leopard population at this reserve because that’s what the leopards like to do. And it’s  quite rare to see a lion doing just that. But we came across two within 10 minutes driving today, and one had just awoken and wandered off into the bush. The other was still sleeping in the tree. There was an absolute traffic jam, as vans in both directions just stopped and jostled and generally made the Westgate Bridge in peak hour look like a good run. There is no where to pull off the track and get around the whole affair. And William just backed up to what looked like a really bad position to observe the lion. He said it would wake soon, and that when it did it would walk our way. And he was right. It was worth the wait. It was another lucky sighting.

Here he is just perched in the tree.

Time for a stretch.

Okay…last lion photo. They are so grand. And we were really close.
We also saw Thomson gazelle, Waterbuck antelope, buffalo up so close it was scary, dozens of baboons heading up to the treetops for the night, some helmeted African guinea fowl, a black shouldered grey kite (the ornithologist here again), and no rhino. Worse still, no leopard.

I love watching the baboons. There were dozens making their way along the road.

Above is a buffalo. They don’t really ring my bells, but are one of the big five. So you sort of have to take a photo.
Before dinner, there was an African dance for us to watch, and Harry was enthralled. I bought him a drum as a souvenir, which he takes everywhere and has named Fred. That’s a Harry thing to do. Here’s Harry and Fred: