The wildlife of missionaries in Nakuru

We loved Lake Nakuru National Park. It felt intimate and small. While you could not go off the roads, the roads seemed designed to bring you close to the animals.... that is, close enough to take over 800 pictures. We'll spare you all the details. (I used to tease my dad about taking a zillion photos---the view of the Grand Canyon from the south, from the south-southwest, from the west...etc. And now, AKK! I've turned into my father's daughter.) So you only get half a zillion on this blog.


The lake was pink with flamingos!We enjoyed just watching them. They are such funny birds, scooping up food with their heads upside-down. We saw a Thompson's Gazelle walking near the shore. The birds edged out of his way as he approached, then filled in behind.
Here are the only pelicans we saw on the trip.
This is my favorite bird! I love the Secretary bird. It's so big and regal. It's amazing to see this solitary long tail feather with a black splash at the end and these incredibly long legs. The book says it is over 3 feet tall!
I love it that the animals mingle. Close to the lake we saw flamingos, water buffalo, zebra and elands. Notice the ox peckers riding on the eland.
The eland is the largest African antelope.
Compared to the midsized Grant's Gazelles...
and impalas. Notice the rainbow in the sky. We skirted the rain most of the afternoon.
The park had open grasslands and acacia tree forests. The bark on the acacia trees is beautifully splashed with greens and browns. We did see some giraffes hidden in the trees and they are supposed to be Rothschild giraffes, but the pictures weren't good. Giraffes are big, but they hide well! Indeed they look a lot like the tree trunks!


These water bucks are hairier than many of the antelope. I was captivated by the round ears. they always seemed to be pointed our direction. You see, a quick photo gives you this angle-- head and ears. A slow photo gives you a great shot of the tail end... quickly receding in the distance. We tried to spare you the tail end shots... although they are quite pretty-- striped black, white around the tail and so on. Hmm. I wonder if that's why the guide books always give great detail of the hind end.

We came across a great herd of zebra wandering down the road. A safari van was following them, but they seemed in no hurry to leave the road. We found some young ones. Cute!
Talk of animals coming to the road. We met a swarm of baboons sprawled across the road working diligently on personal grooming. There had to have been 20 or more. We edged our way through and they reluctantly dislodged themselves and moved to the shoulder.
When we turned around to return, (we'd gotten close to the gate and weren't ready to leave yet) we heard a thump on the back of the truck. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw an adult baboon perched on the edge of the canvas cover of the pick-up. The back edge isn't all that secure. I'm glad he didn't slip inside or we'd have had a captive baboon!Water buffalo like... you guessed it... water. We found some at a wallow near the lodge and many near the lake shore.
They really aren't two tone, but they do like the mud! We were told they can be cranky and unpredictable. As we turned to drive away from the lake there was one huge one standing right about where we needed to drive. We edged by carefully, wondering if they were baleful eyes, or just a normal expression.
One of the things we really wanted to see was rhinoceroses. We had not seen any yet in Africa. So we were excited to see many. First from a distance (we won't share those photos) and then, the second day, we got up really close to several sets of rhinos by the lake side. Then later in the morning, we saw some in the woodlands. I think these rhinos are culturally diverse-- that is, the one with two horns is the black rhino, the one with one horn is the white one. Oh, it's not the color? you say. Yup. White is a corruption of Afrikaans's "weit" meaning wide. One has a wider mouth. I think you can see the wider mouth in this photo. I think. Maybe. Er, clearly I am uncertain of my rhinos.
The very first late afternoon we went out, we tried to follow some of the safari vans. They led us to these lions! Whahoo! First we saw three in a tree. But they were hard to photograph. Then, as we were driving along, here was this lion walking down the road. It was the lion, two safari vans and us, then the U's and who knows who else behind. We probably followed the lion for a half mile before she finally gave up, leaped into the bush and up this tree.
Notice the great color of the bark on the tree. Isn't that amazing? She stood around, waiting for us to leave, and we finally did. But it was awesome to see the lions.
Monkeys really are a barrel of laughs. These black faced vervet monkeys were cute to watch. Again, it always seems to be grooming time... or play time... or tree climbing time....or mischief time.
You see this monkey, innocently sitting on the mirror of the car parked next to ours. We had a monkey investigating our truck as well. But THIS car had a partly opened window. Oops. We watched and a monkey disappeared into the car. Then another... and another.

About that time the owner and her Anglo passenger returned. They opened the door. The passenger was much more interested in taking photos than in shooing the monkeys out. The Monkeys eventually emerged with all their sandwiches in mouths and paws, scattering crumbs, and squabbling among themselves over the best pieces. It was entertaining.... but I was glad it wasn't my car!