Nakuru Park is a rare gem of sublime beauty and spectacular wildlife. It is an important refuge for both black and white rhino and is famous for images of its lakeshores washed pink with the millions of flamingoes which rely on the soda waters to provide them with food.
With such spectacular and important fauna flying the flag for this beautiful park one can often overlook the smaller species which also call it home. A dung beetle industriously rolling its dung ball to a safe place to bury, taking time for a breather and to take stock of its bearings.
Or a Dikdik buck on one of the forest tracks nose twitching and warily keeping an eye on the giant Land Cruiser waiting to get by.
I love to wake up before dawn and drive my guests to the lakeshore to watch the sunrise over the water with a hot cup of tea or coffee and a freshly baked cinnamon roll. The quiet calm of first light seems to echo the dawning of the first day in Africa, where the bustle of our modern world is far away and not yet awakened to its frenetic pace. Coffee mugs steam in the chill air and the fiery orb slowly rises above the eastern wall of the Great Rift Valley touching the lake with gold.
On our last day we were lucky to find a baby white rhino with his mother. The youngster was in a playful mood and approached my colleague Ethan Kinsey’s car to within touching distance before prancing away with a joie de vie in his bucking and head tossing.
Just seventy miles from L. Nakuru but nearly three thousand feet lower in altitude, across the equator to the northern hemisphere and a boat ride away before we finally reach our next destination: Samatian Island on L. Baringo. This eco- lodge is another wonderful retreat from the modern world with views across the lake on all sides which clearly show the rugged grandeur of the Great Rift Valley.
The lake provides a home and living for the Njemps people, a branch of the Maasai who together with their pastoral lifestyle are also fishermen. They set their nets in the fresh waters of L. Baringo, criss-crossing the water lilies in traditional balsa wood canoes fishing for the delicious tilapia.
One of the residents on Samatian Island is Hoo Too, the second Verreaux’s eagle owl who was raised by the owners of the eco-lodge, Caro Roberts and her partner Ross Withey. Some mornings Hoo Too is fed a tasty mouse to keep him healthy as he learns to hunt for himself. At night it can be startling when he lands on the veranda of the open room and starts to hoot.
No comments:
Post a Comment