RIFT VALLEY LAKES
The lakes region of Kenya provides one of the greatest bird spectacles in the world. The Great Rift Valley extends over a full 5632 kilometres from the Eritrean shores of the Red Sea to the Zambezi Valley in Mozambique. In Kenya, it is as wide as 80 kilometres across, with escarpment walls rising up to 100 meters and offering spectacular views. A chain of seven shallow lakes is scattered along the floor of this section of the Rift Valley in Kenya, the 2 most visited being Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru.
Lake Naivasha is the highest and purest freshwater lake in the Rift Valley and as it is only 90 minutes’ drive from Nairobi, making it a great first stop for visitors to Kenya and an ornithologist’s delight with its masses of water birds, including Africa’s densest fish eagle population. Before WW2, the lake was used as a landing place for flying boats on their way from England to South Africa. Joy Adamson who raised a lion cub called Elsa and wrote the famous book Born Free, lived on the shores of the lake in the mid-1960s.
Lake Nakuru is an alkaline lake that boasts one of the most celebrated birdlife spectacles in the world. During certain times of the year, the lake's abundance of algae attracts nearly two million lesser and greater flamingos creating a pulsing wave of pink plumage. In addition to the flamingos, half a million pelicans and over 400 species of other birds also feed on the nurtients of the lake. The best vantage point to view all the colours is on top of a rockly outcrop called Baboons Cliff.
Lake Nakuru is also home to large variety of animals, including Grant's gazelle, bat-eared fox, spotted hyena and the rare Rothschild Giraffe, which can only be found in East Africa. The park also boasts Kenya's largest population of rhinos, containing both black and white rhinos.
Lake Naivasha is the highest and purest freshwater lake in the Rift Valley and as it is only 90 minutes’ drive from Nairobi, making it a great first stop for visitors to Kenya and an ornithologist’s delight with its masses of water birds, including Africa’s densest fish eagle population. Before WW2, the lake was used as a landing place for flying boats on their way from England to South Africa. Joy Adamson who raised a lion cub called Elsa and wrote the famous book Born Free, lived on the shores of the lake in the mid-1960s.
Lake Nakuru is an alkaline lake that boasts one of the most celebrated birdlife spectacles in the world. During certain times of the year, the lake's abundance of algae attracts nearly two million lesser and greater flamingos creating a pulsing wave of pink plumage. In addition to the flamingos, half a million pelicans and over 400 species of other birds also feed on the nurtients of the lake. The best vantage point to view all the colours is on top of a rockly outcrop called Baboons Cliff.
Lake Nakuru is also home to large variety of animals, including Grant's gazelle, bat-eared fox, spotted hyena and the rare Rothschild Giraffe, which can only be found in East Africa. The park also boasts Kenya's largest population of rhinos, containing both black and white rhinos.
where to stay...
From our visits to the Rift Valley Lakes, we have first-hand knowledge of the hotels and below you can find the ones we most commonly use. Those hotels include mainly our favourites sorted from low-key to deluxe, which are usually smaller hotels with very personalised service, but also some bigger places, if they are the best or only option available.
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lake naivasha |
lake naivasha sopa resort
chui lodge
kiangazi house
olerai house
loldia house
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lake nakuru |
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