Nakuru National Park

Hi everyone! I just have to start off by saying that we have the best tour guides in Kenya: Kevin and Bel. They have been so great, driving us around and showing us amazing sights. I've hyperlinked to some places below, so just click on the green font to see the site. 

We just returned from spending the night in a lodge in Nakuru National Park. We arrived at about 6 p.m. Sunday evening to the park (see Mark's previous post about sleeping until 11:30 a.m.) We didn't have much time to go through the park, as it was closing at 6:30 p.m. But we managed to see a lot of animals in such a short time and to reach our ultimate destination within the park for the evening: flamingos at the lake at sunset. Of course Kevin was well prepared for the photo op and had a wine bucket and sparkling wine. The flamingos were amazing. They make a sort of humming/buzzing noise when they're all together. When they take flight it's even better, as you get to see the black parts of their wings- so pretty. Bel informed us that flamingos get their pink hue from their diet of shrimp. You all know how much I love seafood- man did it stink down there by the water. :) 

We left the flamingos and checked into our lodge, the Flamingo Hill tented camp. We were in a tent, but it had hard floors, a verandah, and running water for the toilet and shower. Definitely not roughing it at all. We changed for dinner and met Kevin and Bel at their tent for a pre-dinner cocktail. Dinner was delish- the boys had steak and Bel and I had the lasagna. All the food is fresh and delicious. And the staff were all wonderful. So friendly and accommodating. 

This morning, we awoke at 6 a.m. (ok really we'd been up since 3 a.m. due to our bodies still being on DC time) to meet Kevin and Bel for coffee at 6:30 a.m. We'd asked the hotel to pack our breakfasts for us the night before. So, we had our tea/coffee and hit the road to get back in the park. The best times to see the animals are the early morning and late evening. 

Our destination for our breakfast was an outlook point that overlooks the lake. On our way to it, we took lots of photos, as did Kevin, which I will upload shortly. 

We saw so many amazing birds and animals: white rhino, impala, baboon, some other kind of cute monkey that I forget the name of, guinea hen (Uncle Dave, they made it from MD!), hyena, buffalo, water buck, wart hog (we saw adult and baby wart hog- the babies are adorable!), gazelle, flamingo, pelican, eagle, and vulture. 

Tonight Kevin is cooking a chicken on the new mini weber grill we brought him. Mark isn't feeling so hot (stomach bug), but hopefully he will be ok for our flight tomorrow.

We have a 10 a.m. flight to the Masai Mara National Reserve. We will be staying for 2 nights at this place. See our hotel post for the link to the lodge where we are staying. 

Then it's back to Nairobi and then off to Zanzibar on Saturday. We stay there for 2 nights and then are back here with Kevin again. I'm sure he's sick of us by now, or will be soon. :) His house here is beautiful: 3 bedrooms (1 is his office), 2 full baths, a big backyard. He graciously gave up his bedroom to Mark and me, so we have our own full bath in our room. 

It's really quiet here, sleeping at night, except for the birds in the morning (loud Ibis that sounds like crows) and the cows next door. Thank God I knew that there were cows next door, or else I would have been a little more freaked out when I heard them Sunday morning. 

I will upload photos shortly. I just have to figure out how to link them to here.