Wed., February 21 2024 Lake Nakuru, Rhinos and Waterfalls

 Wed. Feb 21

Beautiful cool, sunny day to begin and roads are in good condition.  We are driving in part of the Rift Valley.  The Rift Valley runs from the Dead Sea south to Madagascar and is where two plates come together.  They are ever so slowly moving apart, so that some day, Adam says, Africa will become two separate continents.

We begin to see herds of zebra and cape buffalo as we enter Lake Nakuru National Park.  And one area with many beautiful giraffes.  These are Rothschild Giraffes; we will see Maasai giraffes later.  

Their unusual gait is called pace, they move both legs on same side at the same time.

These two were feeling a bit amorous - at least he was.  She seemed to be playing hard to get!

At the lake, we see 100's of white pelicans, flamingos and cormorant along the shore of the lake. There used to be nearly 10x the number of flamingos, Adam says, but the water has gotten deeper and many of the birds have gone elsewhere since they feed on algae in shallow water.   It is still very impressive to us!

The larger darker birds are Maribou Storks.

 Fish eagles and other birds as well!   

We continue driving through the park and come across many animals.  

Defassa Waterbucks. 

This family of wart hogs.

Beautiful Eland, the largest of the antelope.

Many more zebras.

These buffalo are enjoying a good soak as the small birds clean off ticks and bugs.

Scampering black-faced vervet monkeys are along the road; this one with clinging baby.

 We also see a few white rhinos, the world's 2nd largest land mammal (after the elephant). There were four of them, but rather far away.  This park received 17 rhinos from South Africa in hopes of keeping the species alive in East Africa, where, unfortunately they have been decimated by poachers in the past. White has nothing to do with their color, but refers to an Afrikans word for wide, "weit" because of their wide mouths.  (The black rhino's mouth comes to a point and they are smaller.)    The gate to the park featured rhinos...

We catch sight of two lions in the tall grass,  and then stop at Sarova Lion Hill Camp for a typical buffet lunch. Lunch and dinner buffets are similar and there is always something interesting. Love the fresh fruit!

 It has very nice grounds and some pretty birds at their feeding station. 

 This is the first place we see birds called weavers which make these interesting nests.  The males make the nest and the female checks them out.  If she doesn't like it, she will cut it down and the male must start over.  The nests are on very flimsy branches to help keep predators from reaching them. They also build decoy nests to confuse predators.

Didn't expect to see water falls here, but we stop at Makalia Falls for a break.  Squatty potty - but at least there was SOMETHING out here in the middle of nature!  

Here's the whole crew.

We drive back to Lake Navaisha Sopa and continue the nature walk that was rained out yesterday.  Philip is our guide.  Since most of the group opted for a boat ride, we have a leisurely stroll with Dennis and Cindy and Adam, catching sight 

of several birds like this tiny but colorful love bird. Herons, kingfishers and others.  Giraffe scat is very small, almost like rabbit - haha, tmi.   We walk down to the dock at the lake.  Many dead trees because of the increase in water levels over the past few years.

There are many hippos in the lake, but all we see are distant ears and occasional eyes and snouts.    Their skin is sensitive so they have to stay in the water during the day. They will come out of the water at dusk and graze, but this part of the grounds is closed by then because they are extremely dangerous.

We learn that two men were killed by hippos near here last night!  They were locals who were illegally fishing.  Adam says hippos kill more people than any other animal because people go to collect water from lakes and streams.  They are extremely territorial.  Later we see some moving out of the water and are surprised by their speed!