Weekend at the Lakes

"The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world." 
- Alexander von Humboldt

Wedged between my trip to Mogadishu and my trip to the US on holiday was a quick family weekend to Lake Naivasha and Lake Elementaita. The former is a rather popular destination just a couple hours northwest of Nairobi. We’d been wanting to go for a while but hadn’t been able to carve out the time. Most people in Nairobi to whom I mentioned the trip were a bit appalled that we hadn’t done it prior to now – sort of low-hanging fruit when it comes to exploring Kenya.

We left on a Saturday morning. Traffic wasn’t bad but it’s sort of a pain in the butt driving on these roads. There are lots of trucks and people taking risks to pass them. Even if you’re not in a huge hurry, you still end up needing to get around slow moving vehicles from time to time. It can be exhausting. Then, coming over the pass and overlooking the Rift Valley, we came to a complete standstill for nearly an hour. Still not sure what it was but we heard there was some sort of accident.

nice place to go for a walk

Our first objective was to visit Lake Naivasha though we would not be spending the night. It was just to have a look around before continuing on to Lake Elementaita, which was another hour or so up the road.

waterbuck

We arrived in Naivasha late morning. It really is a beautiful place, highlighted by the fact that there are giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, etc. roaming about. Apparently since they don’t have any predators in this area they are quite relaxed. They don’t seem too agitated by the presence of humans unless you get too close. As such you can pretty much hang out amongst the animals. Very cool.

restaurant with a view

We had a cup of coffee at a small restaurant on the lake, went for a walk and then decided we’d best head up the road and get to our hotel at Lake Elementaita for a late lunch.

our lodge on Lake Elementaita

We checked into our hotel, ordered lunch and went to the upper floor of our hotel for a look at the view. 

beautiful weather; beautiful view

It too is an amazing place, though quite different from Naivasha. The most obvious difference between the lakes is the wildlife. Elementaita has hundreds of flamingos that tend to stay mostly on the southern part of the lake. On the side where we stayed, there were not too many animals other than birds and the occasional heard of cows and goats that roamed by. The wild animals were apparently on a protected area on the other side of the lake. Nonetheless it was a beautiful location.

the hotel with a storm bearing down

flamingos

love birds - monogamous to death

view from the lodge

The girls were less interested in wildlife anyway and spent most of their time on the trampoline or in the swimming pool. We did go for a nice nature walk with a guide who was also an ornithologist. I don’t know if it’s a sign of age but I feel like the older I get, the more fascinated I am by birds (it’s nothing I’ll admit very often though). It’s worth noting that there are more than 400 species of birds recorded in the area. It’s a soda lake and, in spite of the apparent inhospitability due to the high alkaline, it’s a surprisingly productive ecosystem with loads of fish and wildlife.

After two nights at Elementaita, we headed back towards Nairobi. The plan was to once again stop at Lake Naivasha on the way, this time to visit a protected sanctuary called Crescent Island. It appears to be an island from time to time, when the water level is high, but most of the time it’s probably more of a peninsula. Contrary to Elementaita, Naivasha is a freshwater lake. It’s more developed, probably due to its closer proximity to Nairobi. We were told that it was common to go back and forth easily during the day. With traffic nowadays it makes traveling to and from more cumbersome.

Crescent Island

In the 1940s when air travel first came to Kenya en route from England to South Africa, the four-engine Flying-Boats landed on Lake Naivasha and the foundations of the terminal and customs shed can still be seen today on Crescent Island. According to the lady who owns/manages the island, it was Nairobi’s first airport. Unfortunately for us, our visit was shorter than we intended. Both girls had meltdowns and it was all we could do to walk around the island with a guide for a bit more than an hour. We eventually cut our losses and headed back to the car. It was a shame. It’s a pretty amazing place, walking around the animals in such a pretty setting. We’ll need to go back when the girls are a bit older.