Lake Nakuru National Park

Overview

Lake Nakuru is a shallow alkaline lake in the floor of the Rift Valley, ringed by acacia woodland, yellow-barked fever trees and steep escarpments, and the whole 188-square-kilometre park is fenced. The fence was built to protect rhino, and it worked: Nakuru holds both black and white rhino in numbers that make a sighting close to certain, which is true almost nowhere else in East Africa. It is also the easiest place in the country to see Rothschild's giraffe, translocated here in the 1970s. The lake was historically famous for a million or more lesser flamingo turning the shoreline pink, though rising water levels since 2010 have flooded the shallows and pushed most of the flamingos to Lake Bogoria - some return in drier years, but they should not be the reason you come. Baboon Cliff and Out of Africa lookout give the classic views over the lake, and leopard and lion are both present in the woodland.