Kenya day 5: Birds, birds and more birds!

Taphe Guest Resort was our accommodation for the night. Clean, comfortable, friendly staff, good wifi, nice lounge area and garden. On their website they say you can see the lake from the balcony. What balcony?!?

We had a warm shower, everyone else seems to have had a cold one.
The mosquito nets had holes in them but made for a very pretty 4 poster bed, the electrical wiring on the shower head is textbook 'what not to do' and the toilet tank was permanently topless. Oh well, this is a budget trip...

The plan for the day was to visit Lake Naivasha and then drive to the Hell's Gate National Park, which is famous for geysers, star rock towers and geothermal steams and for allowing walking / cycling through the valley as you view the animals. That was the plan but it didn't happen. 2 days previously, 9 tourists were washed away by the torrential rains in the Hell's Gate Valley, 7 bodies have been recovered and it has since been closed for tourism. So instead we did a boat safari and a walking safari in Lake Naivasha.
Lake Naivasha is the highest (1884m altitude) of the Great Rift Valley lakes and a freshwater lake. The name derives from the Masai word Nai'posha, meaning 'rough water' because of the sudden winds and storms that can arise, as we were going to see in the evening. The lake is almost 13km across and has a surface area of 156 sq kms, surrounded by a swamp and thousands of yellow barked acacias (also known as the yellow fever tree). Average depth is 5m with the deepest area being at Crescent Island (maximum depth of 30m).
On arrival to the lake we realise that we wouldn't have been able to reach the lake shores yesterday. Swamps, farmland and an entry gate to the lake said it all.
Boat ride to see the highlights of Lake Naivasha: a resident population of hippos and 340 species of birds.
The boat ride was an extra and it cost KSh1500 (£11.8, €13, $14.5).

HIPPOS

EGYPTIAN GOOSE
Latin: Alopochen aegyptiaca
Swahili: bata bukini or mmisri bata bakini
Status: common resident

YELLOW-BILLED STORK
Latin: Mycteria ibis
Swahili: korongo domonjano
Status: common resident

SACRED IBIS
Latin: Threskiornis aethiopicus
Swahili: kwarara mweupe
Status: common resident

AFRICAN SPOONBILL
Latin: Platalea alba
Swahili: domomwiko Afrika
Status: sparse resident

BLACK-HEADED HERON
Latin: Ardea melanocephala
Swahili: koikoi majoka or kongoti majoka
Status: common resident

GREAT WHITE EGRET
Latin: Ardea alba
Swahili: yange mkuu
Status: widespread common resident

GREAT (EASTERN) WHITE PELICAN
Latin: Pelecanus onocrotalus
Swahili: mwari mweupe
Status: common resident on Rift Valley Lakes

PINK-BACKED PELICAN
Latin: Pelecanus rufescens
Swahili: mwari
Status: widespread resident

GREAT CORMORANT
Latin: Phalacrocorax carbo
Swahili: mnandi kifuacheupe
Status: common resident

AFRICAN FISH EAGLE
Latin: Haliaeetus vocifer
Swahili: tai miasamaki
Status: common resident

After the boat ride, time for the walking safari. The entry fee we had paid for the Hell's Gate National Park was transferred to pay for the entry fee to the Crescent Island Sanctuary.
George is the guide responsible to take tourists around Crescent Island. Well... kind of an island. If the lake is full, Crescent becomes an island. If it's drier then the Crescent is linked to the shores of the lake becoming a peninsula inside a lake.
Crescent Island is populated by a resident population of herbivores: giraffes, zebras, impalas, waterbucks, gazelles. They were brought into the island for the shooting of 8the film 'Out of Africa' and they stayed on. They have no predators here so when the numbers become high, some are transferred to one of the national parks.

African Buffalo

Masai Giraffe

A 5 & 7 months old giraffe.

Common Zebra

YELLOW-COLLARED LOVEBIRD
Latin: Agapornis personatus
Swahili: kwaru shingonjano
Status: locally common
So small! On the left hand side of the tree.

SUPERB STARLING
Latin: Lamprotornis superbus
Swahili: kwezi maradadi
Status: common resident

I forgot a camera SD card on top of the bed and we returned to retrieve it. It had half of the Masai Mara pictures. I was so lucky!
On the way to Lake Nakuru, our next stop, Felix stopped at the top of a hill bordering Lake Elementaita to show us how many flamingos there were in the lake. We couldn't see very well as it was far so I reached for the binoculars and was in awe. I knew we wouldn't be seeing this many flamingos at Lake Nakuru and the flamingos were one of the highlights of the trip for me  so I convinced the group to go down to the lake to see them. It cost KSh2000 (£15.7, €17.3, $19.3) each and Brook wasn't sure about it but a little push and there we went. It was worth all the money!
Lake Elementaita is another Great Rift Valley Lake at 1670m altitude. The name derives from the Masai word muteita meaning 'dust place', a reference to the dry and dusty appearance of the area. The lake is 19 sp kms and very shallow, around 0.9m deep. It's an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Unlike Lake Naivasha, Elementaita is a soda or alkaline lake. Soda lakes are characterized by high concentrations of carbonate salts giving rise to their alkalinity, pH 9-12.
My camera battery decided to run out as we arrived at the shores of the lake so all I have are my phone pictures... Brook promised to send me some of her pictures and I'll add them to a later post when I have them.
The sight of a flock of flamingos lining the shores of the lake is beautiful. When they take off at the same time is magical and they kind of walk on the water as they gain momentum. All of this is difficult to explain in words or pictures and unfortunately I was too mesmerised to film it.

GREATER FLAMINGO
Latin: Phoenicopterus roseus
Swahili: heroe mkubwa
Status: less common than Lesser Flamingo
The bigger flamingo with a pinkish-white body and the upper and lower wings coverts are pink.

LESSER FLAMINGO
Latin: Phoeniconaias minor
Swahili: heroe mdogo
Status: locally abundant
Smaller with a deep pink plumage.

Unlike you might think, flamingos are not born pink. They are actually born grey and then turn white. The bright pink colour of flamingos comes from carotenoids, a red-orange pigment that is found in high numbers in algae in the soda lakes. Enzymes in the flamingo's liver break down the carotenoids into the pink and orange pigment molecules that are absorbed by fats deposited in the feathers, bill and legs.
Lesser Flamingos feed on the algae directly whilst Greater Flamingos feed on the fish that feed on the algae, hence the lesser are pinker than the greater. A very complicated food chain!
Flamingos in zoos are fed a special diet that includes prawns or beta-carotene too keep their pink colour.
The lake has a natural hot spring at it's southern end (Kekopey Hot Spring) with very warm water that flows through the black volcanic sand. There were a few locals with their feet dipped in the water and a couple of tourists. There was a bit of rubbish I must say, but still it was a very nice spot!

We arrived late for lunch at our accommodation in Lake Nakuru but no one seemed to mind. Spaghetti bolognese it was with potatoes and stir-fry cabbages. Whatever you eat in this country, it always comes with double carbs!
Tonight we will be staying at Lanet Matfam Resort. The best one so far!
I found a building where they seem to bottle their own water. We have seen big trucks with 'Clean water' written on them. It could be that they are either bottling this or filtering their own. Neither Brook nor Sandy got sick from their water.

The accommodation has a water tower wuith a view to the surrounding hills and city.

Taking advantage of the swimming pool, we decided to enjoy it a bit. It didn't last long as rain clouds were coming. A couple of hours later, as we sat for dinner, the heavens opened its gates.
The thunders were a bit more than the building could cope with and before dinner we lost power in the sockets and the lights barely survived. At 11pm we realised we would neither be having sockets nor wifi. Buuu!