Lake Nakuru National Park Day Trip from Nairobi

The Rift Valley escarpment road from Nairobi

Lake Nakuru lies about 160 kilometres north-west of Nairobi, and how to get to Lake Nakuru from Nairobi is part of the pleasure: the road climbs through the farmland of Limuru and then arrives without warning at the edge of the Great Rift Valley, where the land drops hundreds of metres to a floor dotted with the volcanic cones of Longonot and Suswa. We stop at the escarpment viewpoint for photos of the valley stretching towards Tanzania.

The drive to the park gate takes roughly two and a half to three hours with the stop, which is why we leave at 06:00. Your guide uses the time to explain the geology of the rift, the tea and flower farms of the highlands and what to look for once inside the park. A private vehicle means the pace is yours, with a comfort stop on the way.

Lake Nakuru National Park and its rhinos

Lake Nakuru National Park is a fenced sanctuary of about 188 square kilometres around a shallow alkaline lake, and it is the best place in Kenya to see both black and white rhino in a single morning; the park was declared a rhino sanctuary in the 1980s and the animals graze calmly on the lakeshore grass. Rothschild's giraffe, one of the rarest giraffe subspecies, was introduced here and is seen in the acacia woodland, together with buffalo, waterbuck, zebra, impala, warthog and baboon troops.

Lions rest in the yellow fever trees and leopards are seen more often here than in most parks, especially on the forest edge in the morning. Our guide drives the lakeshore loop and the woodland tracks over about three to four hours, stopping for as long as you like at every sighting. Sightings are never guaranteed, but Nakuru's compact size makes it unusually productive.

Flamingos, pelicans and Baboon Cliff

Lake Nakuru became famous for the flamingos that once turned its shoreline pink; their numbers rise and fall with the water level and the algae they feed on, so some seasons bring tens of thousands and others only scattered flocks, while great white pelicans, cormorants and storks are present all year. The lake is a bird sanctuary with some 450 recorded species, and the shoreline drive gives close views without leaving the vehicle.

The climb to Baboon Cliff rewards you with the classic view: the whole lake framed by the rift walls, the pink band of birds along the edge and the forest below, with a picnic site where lunch can be bought or eaten if you bring your own. Is Lake Nakuru worth visiting without the big flamingo numbers? Yes, for the rhinos and giraffe alone; the best time to visit Lake Nakuru is the dry months from June to October and January to February.

Lake Naivasha and the afternoon boat ride

Lake Naivasha is the freshwater lake of the rift, about 90 kilometres from Nakuru on the way back to Nairobi, fringed with papyrus and yellow fever trees and ringed by flower farms. The boat ride of about an hour takes you across the calm water past pods of hippo, which surface and snort a safe distance away, and under the perches of African fish eagles that your boatman calls down to snatch a fish from the surface, one of the great photographs of Kenya.

Kingfishers, cormorants, herons and pelicans line the shore, and giraffe and waterbuck graze on the grassy banks. The default option includes the boat ride; on the option without fees it can be paid on the spot. From Naivasha the drive back to Nairobi takes about two hours, with the escarpment view again at sunset. The whole day runs eight to twelve hours depending on the option and traffic.