Africa, Day 2: Lake Nakuru National Park.

This morning was a driving day, where we headed into Lake Nakuru National Park. This place used to be known for its flamingos, but since the 90’s the lake has gotten bigger and now isn’t salty enough for much of the food that the flamingos prefer, so there are fewer of them.

Fruit, anyone?

We stopped along the way to take photos of the Great Rift Valley, where it all began…

The Lake Nakuru National Park is188 kms square and has an electric fence around the perimeter.

The only one of the Big Five that this park doesn’t have is the elephant.

It was heavily raining as soon as we got here at 12m, but I remained optimistic. Our first big game drive wasn’t until 4, so as far as I was concerned, it could rain all it liked until then.

The first animal we saw was the Cape Buffalo, one of the Big Five.
“This animal hates humans with a passion,” said George, the driver of the jeep I was in. “You could bring a baby one home and keep it in your backyard, and when it gets big enough it will try to kill you.”

They didn’t seem very pleased to see us.

Then zebras! Lots of zebras.

”A passport shot!” said George. Their tails looked like someone had plaited them.

We discovered that there are many troupes of baboons here. The rain had stopped.

Hippo!

All of a sudden, George stopped the car, came in the back where we were and lifted the roof. As long as we took our shoes off, we could stand on the seats and have a clear view for photos.

Pelicans.

Pelicans do communal fishing in a clump and when one dives they all dive. If one doesn’t get a fish then one who has already eaten will give them their fish.