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Write a User ReviewA Pretty Little Safari Park
There used to be over a million flamingos, but changing water levels have made the place far less attractive to these enigmatic birds. You will likely see some (maybe even a lot), but the giant flocks the park was previously so famous for have largely gone elsewhere.
That’s not to say Nakuru is a letdown. Far from it in fact. It’s actually very pretty, thanks to the lake itself and the presence of attractive acacia woodlands where antelopes, monkeys, and buffalo can all be encountered.
If you haven’t seen rhinos, well, there are plenty of both species here, and you have a very high chance of spotting them ambling along the grassy lake shores.
There are lions, who famously climb trees from time to time, and there are quite a few leopards too. No elephants though.
Due to its diminutive size and
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proximity to a busy town, Nakuru can sometimes feel a bit crowded with visitors, especially so around predator sightings.
Challenging Game Viewing
Once upon a time, people flocked to Nakuru to spot the flamingos that flocked here. Sadly, thanks to repeated floods in the Rift Valley, the flamingos are not as common as they used to be . The park is home to four of the Big Five (elephants are absent) as well as hippos, a wealth of antelope and the usual zebra and giraffe. Spotting the animals can be challenging and my personal wildlife-watching experience here was largely underwhelming. Scenically though, this park sitting in the Rift Valley is arresting, particularly the vistas from Baboon Cliff Viewpoint, which conjure up scenes from ‘The Lion King’.
Pretty in Pink
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I enjoyed an excellent leopard encounter – something for which the park is well known – and was also impressed by the high numbers of waterbuck, reedbuck and other antelope. You may also spot one of the park’s many large pythons.The Pink-Tinged Lake
Lake Nakuru National Park is a short drive from Nakuru town, making it one of the most visited parks in Kenya. Whilst it doesn’t rate highly as a true wilderness experience, that’s not to say that a visit here isn’t worthwhile. White rhinos are common here, and there are also large numbers of waterbuck, buffalo, impala, warthog and the odd lion.
This is also one of the best places in the country to see leopards and they can attract quite a crowd. On my last visit here my guide pointed out a leopard in the trees; within minutes it was surrounded by a gaggle of jeeps and tourists’ cameras flashing brightly against the dusk.
The park is most famous for its flamingos, however. There were once over two million but numbers have dwindled due to fluctuating water levels, pollution and drought, although there are still sometimes enough to create quite a spectacle. My overriding memory of the park is of a late afternoon at the southern end, the lake tinged pink with thousands of flamingos, and rhinos quietly grazing in the foreground.
The Family Friendly Park
But, what the park gains in user-friendliness it loses in wilderness appeal. Fenced in its entirety, Lake Nakuru National Park is home to so many rhinos (which have largely been brought in from less well-protected parks)
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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: Rothschild’s giraffes, rhinos and others, ambling through the foreground.However, flamingos, being fussy birds, are reliant on exactly the right depth of water in order to flourish. In recent years (from 2019) 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 there were a few 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.
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.