Buffalos amoungst flamngoes in Lake Nakuru

Arriving at sunset with no time for a game drive, we meet a group of youngsters who are members of a club called Pathway to Peace on their first camping safari.

Their mentors take them through the drill on the grounds of the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya (WCK) – how to pitch the tents (and they are doing it in darkness by torch light with gigantic bloodsucking mosquitoes having a great time on their human prey) and how to behave in the wild.

“Pathway to Peace is a project that’s using the environment as a bridge to peace,” explains Eric Deche, WCK’s programmes’ officer. “When there’s peace, the environment is pretty much safe but in times of wars and calamities, the environment suffers.”

On the wall of the WCK resource centre, hangs a tri of posters dated 1930, 1960 and 1990 of L. Nakuru and its environs.

In the first one Nakuru town is a tiny square a distance from the lake and a large green patch of forest and grassland surrounds the lake with a smaller brown patch for the ranches.

In 1960, the tiny square is considerably bigger but the 1990 poster is the complete reverse – the town surrounds the park on the northwestern side with a tiny patch of forest and the farmland increased.

However, the lake and the park surrounding it are still stunning and full of wildlife – which makes it one of Kenya’s most visited parks.

It’s early morning and the lake is full and glistening with the good rains we’ve had since the beginning of this year. Where the previous year, Makalia waterfall had been reduced to a trickle, it’s now thundering over the cliffs and feeding into the lake.

The rivers, too, are brimming to the banks and the animals are all fat and happy –the drought before the rains had claimed thousands of animals.

The flamingoes, dressed like flamenco dancers, in stunning hues of pink and luscious red underwing fill the lake. There’s plenty of algae for them to feed on – one of the reasons why they frequent the lake in their millions.

The light of the rising sun from behind Lion Hill casts a gold hue on everything while the air, now warmed, rises in a white mist over the blue water reflecting the golden orb and the hills. I get Firoz Dharani to pose for a picture holding the sun in his hand – a perfect illusion.

There’s so much life everywhere – a herd of 100 or so buffaloes walk to the lake for a drink. A gigantic white rhino is in deep slumber where the salt crust pan of the lake meets the tall grass.

The oxpeckers are no problem to it as they flit on its heavy frame pecking away at the ticks. Behind the acacia forest is thick and Flamingo hill so statuesque.

Up on Baboon Cliff, the baboons are awake and all over the place with the naughty little ones swinging from the vines. I’m almost getting out of the car when what happens next has me frozen in shock.

A huge baboon climbs on to the car and through the window on my side brushing against my arm. At close quarters, he’s gigantic. He then sits next to me and my heart literally stops beating.

I’m paralyzed with fear – just a bite from his massive jaws fitted with long canines or a swipe from his massive paws with its long sharp nails could do considerable damage to me – any sign of panic would be disastrous.

The baboon is joined by his mate and the two sitting on the same seat next to me look at me with no interest and proceed to shake the shuka obviously looking for food. That’s when I make my escape screaming – but that is no deterrent.

They eventually get out of the car. I guess they look meaner than they are and I recall the researcher Shirley Strum’s work with baboons in Kenya where she writes about her experience – they would come menacingly towards her to frighten her away until one day she stood her ground and they did nothing to her.

It’s an old adage but one we normally forget – keep your calm around wildlife and they will leave you alone.

Finally, with the sun now high, we make our way to the WCK cottage to be met by a pair of Silver back jackals and striped zebras on their way to the lake.

Fat waterbucks with white bums – Defassas’s waterbucks are only found in Lake Nakuru while the common waterbuck with rings on their bums are found everywhere else, stand not far from a mother impala with a suckling foal at her teat.

Source: Rupi Mangat – Daily Nation