Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha
A fault tearing the continent apart, lakes pink with flamingos, rhinos beneath yellow acacias — and a park you visit by bicycle among the zebras.
Suggested stay — 2 to 3 nights
Two hours from Nairobi, the road plunges into the Rift Valley past spectacular viewpoints, and the lakes string out along the floor of the fault. Lake Nakuru National Park, fenced and compact, is the country's most reliable rhino sanctuary: white rhinos on the shoreline grasslands, black rhinos in the thickets, with Rothschild's giraffes, tree-climbing lions and — depending on the lake level, highly variable since the waters rose in 2013 — clouds of lesser flamingos thrown in.
Naivasha, an hour away, plays it relaxed: a boat trip among hippos and fish eagles, free walking among giraffes and wildebeest on Crescent Island, and above all Hell's Gate, the only Kenyan park you can tour by bicycle — basalt gorges, steam vents and zebras at handlebar height. The perfect stage to break the road to the Masai Mara, and the most flexible of the circuit: lakeside campsites, historic farm-lodges, easy resupply.
Don't miss
- The white rhinos of Lake Nakuru's shores, often in groups in the early morning
- The Baboon Cliff viewpoint over the flamingo-pink lake (water level permitting)
- Hell's Gate by bike: the Ol Njorowa gorge and Fischer's Tower basalt columns
- A sunset boat trip on Naivasha, hippos guaranteed
Our tips on the ground
- At Nakuru, drive up to Baboon Cliff late morning but close everything: the car-park baboons open doors and cracked windows like professionals.
- Rent the bikes at Elsa gate (Hell's Gate) and set off before 8 am: the heat and the school buses arrive together mid-morning.
- At the Lake Naivasha campsites, hippos graze between the tents at night: listen to the askari, keep your headlamp on you and your distance.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Kenya on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Before you go
Readers' questions about Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha
Are the flamingos still at Nakuru?
Not like in the photos from the 1990s: the lake's rising waters since 2013 diluted the soda and dispersed the colonies. There are still often several thousand birds, but the great gatherings shift year by year towards Bogoria, two hours north — ask in Nakuru itself and add Bogoria if flamingos are your priority.
Is cycling Hell's Gate dangerous?
It is one of the rare parks with no resident lions or elephants, hence the bicycle permission: you pedal among zebras, giraffes and warthogs with no greater risk than sunburn. Stay on the main track all the same, carry more water than you think, and watch for buffalo near the thickets — the place's one real caveat.