The Family Friendly Park
Lake Nakuru National Park is one of Kenya’s big ticket parks and, on the right day, one of the best places in East Africa to see flamingos, which sometimes occur in mind boggling numbers – well over a million isn’t unheard of. As well as blushing pink birds the park is a hot spot for rhinos, both black and white. Leopards are also seen with frequency and there are large numbers of pelicans, warthogs, waterbuck, buffalo and zebra. Throw in the namesake beautiful lake which is best appreciated from the top of the baboon cliffs at the park’s western edge, easy access from Nakuru town which abuts the park, a well-maintained road network and what emerges is one of the best family-friendly parks in the country.
But, what the park gains in user friendliness it loses in wilderness appeal. Fenced in its entirety, Nakuru National Park is home to so many rhinos (which have largely been brought in from less well-protected parks) simply because it’s not a remote and wild park and therefore they can be easily protected here. And, despite the density of wildlife here, this can make some people a little snooty about Nakuru. Before I first visited the park I probably fell into that category myself but when, eventually, I did get around to visiting and I first saw the lake tinged with the pink of flamingos, my opinion quickly changed. Sure, I’d seen flamingos before but never quite in the numbers that were present here and what made it better is that as I peered at them through binoculars my view was constantly being obscured by other animals: Rothschilds giraffes, rhinos and others, ambling through the foreground.
However, flamingos, being fussy birds, are reliant on just exactly the right depth of water in order to flourish. In recent years (from 2014) heavy rains through much of Kenya’s Rift Valley region have raised lake waters considerably and this means that right now there are far fewer flamingos present than five or six years ago. If flamingos are your big reason to visit Nakuru, then it would be wise to seek local advice before heading into the park.
Overlooking the current flamingo-less flamingo lake then, to summarise I would say that if you want a real back-of-beyond safari then Nakuru probably won’t do it for you, but if you were travelling here with children, or people with only a limited interest in wildlife, then Nakuru, which can be enjoyed over the course of just a couple of hours, before heading back into town, should be high on your list of parks to visit.