Flamingos, Rhinos, and a Trippy Yogurt Cafe

This morning we woke up in our hobbit hotel bright and early. It is actually impossible to sleep late in Kenya because the cities are so, so noisy and you have to keep the windows open. Earplugs are essential travel items if you ever plan to visit! (Also on that list are toilet paper, soap, shampoo, ziplock bags, and a towel, just FYI).

We drove into Nakuru National Park, about 5 minutes from Nakuru town; the national park is basically a large lake and the surrounding wetlands. Its main claim to fame are the massive flamingo flocks and a few odd rhino. Nakuru is also one of the national parks where you can do your own game drive without the services of a guide. We saw a few tourists in 4WD vehicles but our Toyota Carina was a champ!

As we drove in, we found this guy who was adorable:



Usually the babies run away but these seemed eager to sit and show off for us.

We made our way toward the lake which we could see was surrounded by pink and white at the edges from the flamingos and pelicans crowding the coastline. We were about 200 yards from the lake when I suddenly spotted a lone rhino and M made a sharp turn to the left. We approached slowly and snapped a few photos:



At this point, Mr. Rhino made a sound that was a cross between a sneeze and a grunt. “What does that mean?”, M asked. He didn’t even wait for my response (“I don’t speak rhino, dear”) before maneuvering the car into a U-turn and giving our friend some distance.

We back-tracked to the flamingos and almost got the car stuck in the lake but did manage to get close enough to see the famous pink flamingos.



After a few hours, we drove up to the look-out point where you could see the entire park:



After the lookout, we got on the way to Naivasha. Mzee Mungai told us to stop at the Yogurt Café outside of Naivasha which essentially was a large gas station with a few stores very similar to the NJ turnpike. We purchased some yogurts and were directed outside to a large garden area with tables and awnings, like a beer garden but with yogurt. The culture left something to be desired (insert yogurt joke!), however, because of the presence of some very large, vulture-like birds. Here is M enjoying his yogurt (they drink it with a straw here) with the birds stalking in the background:



There were about 20 of these birds walking between tables eyeing all the patrons like creepy waiters. The whole thing was very weird and trippy so we moved on quickly. We found lodging overnight in Naivasha and tomorrow we’re visiting Mary’s (my teacher friend) parent’s house in Kikuyu-land outside of Nairobi before taking the night-bus back to Mombasa. It’s been a whirlwind trip but very exciting to see a new part of Kenya and to do it at our own pace. I think we’re learning that we’d (often but not always) rather do our own thing than be part of a tour. It has some downsides but I think on the whole that there’s a lot more to be gained from doing it on our own.