[Tuesday, August 1, 2023]
Once again, we began this morning with a not too early start to the day as a 9:00 AM departure. The routine is now starting to become quite familiar. We get up, shower, pack, eat breakfast and pile into the LC for our next adventure. Today we had a couple of stops before we arrived at our destination for the day which is Lake Nakuru National Park.
The first stop was the equator at a place called Subukia, Kenya which turned out to be a typical tourist trap. To get to the washrooms, we had to walk through the little market they have setup. Of course, the moment you walk through the market you have multiple people attempting to sell you something. It’s not that the items are not interesting, they most certainly are and I’m sure that if we were not at the beginning of our trip, we might have purchased several items already. There is also the issue of what we can bring back in the form of carved wood items. It certainly isn’t easy to find a clear delineation of what is allowed and what is not.
We also were corralled and taken to a demonstration of how water will swirl depending on where you are in relation to the equator. The first demonstration is about 10 meters North of the equator where the water revolves in a clockwise direction. 10 meters south of the equator, the water revolves in a counter clockwise direction. Then they go stand on the equator and the same demonstration shows that there is no rotation in the water. It was kind of cool to see this. After you observed the demonstration, you could purchase a certificate that showed you had been at the equator. We took another group selfie at the waistline of the planet.
Our next stop was only another hour and a half down the road and was known as Thompson Falls. It’s a spectacular waterfall from a very high location and there are several British constructed buildings which now serves as the Thompson Falls Lodge. There were also some similar, but newer looking buildings on the other side of the steep riverbank which was also a hotel. While we were taking photos of the falls, there were a couple aggressive vendors trying to get us to come to the little market that was about 70 yards closer to the falls. None of us were interested but they were still rather insistent. When our driver returned, one lady who had been standing there the entire time complained to him that none of us went to their shops. He laughed her off. We hopped back into the LC and headed for the Lake Nakuru Lodge.
It is interesting how fast the weather changes here depending on where you are located. At the equator it was rather hot and dry. As we drove you could feel the air cool, and it looked as though we would see rain. We also came upon the Great Rift Valley which is where two tectonic plates have separated a little and created a valley that stretches from Lebanon to Mozambique.
We arrived at Lake Nakuru Lodge and got settled into our rooms and then headed to the restaurant for lunch. Our rooms, although a little rustic, had a clear view of the lake and the start of the game reserve.
A quick lunch and we had some time to rest before our game drive which was scheduled for 4:00 PM. With the time, we went back to our rooms to get settled and just take in the spectacular scenery. We were warned to make sure that our patio door was locked as there are baboons in the area (and yes, we saw them hanging around), and they will get into your room and make quite the mess apparently. Lock checked a few times before we left.
We started the game drive and right away we came across a grouping of Rothschild giraffes. These are like the ones we saw at the Giraffe Sanctuary in Nairobi.
Next our guide heard on the radio that a leopard had been spotted, but part of the way there it was reported that the leopard decided he had enough and jumped down from his tree perch and disappeared in the forest. It seems like certain tourists are known for being too noisy when they come across wildlife which spooks them, and they leave.
We next came across a pride of lions (female and some cubs) and numbers of cape buffalo.
We drove around a little more looking for more animals and it began to rain, so we closed the top of the vehicle. The rain makes things quite slippery, so more care was needed as we drove and passed other safari vehicles along the narrow roads. As we were not seeing too many more animals, and we had been driving for about two hours, Hamisi decided to head back to the lodge. While on the way there, I saw several baboons cross the road in front of us, in a bit of a hurry. Shortly after we saw a male lion cross. He must have been chasing the baboons. We drove up and parked and I caught a few pictures of this majestic beauty, here is one of them.
Back to the lodge we went, and our safari family met for dinner at the restaurant at 7:00 PM. When we arrived, there was a bit of an altercation going on between a Caucasian and Asian man. They were sort of blocking the entrance to the restaurant and it almost appeared as though it was going to end up in blows. A nice dinner and conversation with our safari family as well as a short chat with Hamisi about the early start for tomorrow. He wants us to be at the lobby, ready to go for 8:00 AM. This might give us a bit of head start over the larger number of people that we are seeing as we progress. Our driver indicated this would be the case and that when we arrive at the Masai Mara – we should expect to see dozens and dozens of vehicles.
Looking forward to seeing some flamingos tomorrow at the lake.
G’night all.
Curt & Laureen
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