Places to visit in Nakuru on a budget with family : Nakuru is the name of a city in the Rift Valley in Kenya. It serves as the county seat of Nakuru and is the third-largest city in Kenya. Nakuru is now the largest urban hub in the Rift Valley, surpassing Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, with 570,674 urban people as of 2019.In 1988, the park was designated as a rhino sanctuary. It was also designated a Ramsar site in 1990 and an Important Bird Area in 2009.The park is renowned around the world for having a large flamingo population. Great white pelicans that nest nearby in Lake Elmenteita use it as a vital feeding ground. The park is home to 56 different kinds of mammals, including Rothschild’s giraffes, and over 450 different bird species.
Lake Nakuru
Lake Nakuru is one of the lakes in the Rift Valley known for its breathtaking flamingos on its shoreline. It is 1,754 metres (5,755 feet) above sea level and protected by Lake Nakuru National Park which is located south of Nakuru town. The lake’s profusion of algae draws a large number of flamingos on the shoreline. There are also plenty of warthogs, baboons and other large mammals apart from the birds. Additionally, southern white rhinos and eastern black rhinos have been introduced.
Early in the 1990s, the lake’s water level severely decreased, but it has since mostly recovered. Flamingos arrived to Lake Bogoria in search of food source in 2013 after the lake saw an alarming rise in water levels. The Maasai word for Nakuru is “Dust or Dusty Place”. In 1961, Lake Nakuru National Park was established adjacent Nakuru town. It initially just covered the well-known lake and the mountains nearby, but it has since grown to cover a significant portion of the savannahs.
Lake Nakuru National Park
Lake Nakuru National Park established in 1961 188 km2 (73 mi2) and is located close to Nakuru Town, was The flamingos breeding along the shorelines, counting in the thousands and sometimes millions, are what make it famous. A frequently fluctuating mass of pink obscures the shallow lake’s surface, making it difficult to distinguish it from other objects. The finest viewing point is from Baboon Cliff, and the quantity of flamingos on the lake changes with water and food conditions. An region 188 km (117 mi) around the lake that has been cordoned off as a sanctuary for giraffes and both black and white rhinos is also noteworthy.
Recently, the park was expanded, in part to create a safe haven for black rhinos. This project required the construction of a fence, but not to stop wildlife migration but to deter poachers. The park extends for 12.1 km (7.5 mi) along the south-eastern border with the Soysambu conservancy, which represents the last surviving wildlife corridor to Lake Naivasha and a potential expansion of rhino habitat in the future.
As of 2009, the park is home to more than 25 eastern black rhinos, one of the greatest concentrations in the nation, as well as about 70 southern white rhinos. There are also some Rothschild’s giraffe, which were also moved from western Kenya for safety that began in 1977.Both of the Kenyan subspecies of waterbuck are present here and are quite widespread. Lions, cheetahs, and leopards are among the predators; the latter has become considerably more common recently. Additionally, there are sizable pythons in the park that live in the dense woodlands and are frequently spotted hanging from trees or crossing the roadways. The lake and the area around it are home to a wide variety of other bird species, including flamingos and others of their sort such the African fish eagle, Goliath heron, hammerkops, pied kingfisher, and Verreaux’s eagle.
Menengai Crater
In Kenya’s Great Rift Valley is the enormous shield volcano Menengai Crater, which has one of the largest calderas in the world. The second largest volcano caldera in Africa, it is also the largest volcano caldera in Kenya.The countryside surrounding its flanks is enriched by rich loam soils created by volcanic activity. The Rift Valley’s bottom is where the crater is located. A volcano and caldera approximately 12 by 8 kilometres formed about 8000 years ago. Approximately 200,000 years ago, the volcano formed. The floor of the caldera is covered in numerous post-volcanic lava flows. The Menengai volcano has a fairly well-preserved caldera in the style of Krakatau. In Menengai’s caldera, which is composed of challenging ridges and enormous lava stones, silt is extremely uncommon.
Menengai Forest
Menengai forest is near the town of Nakuru, at the middle of the forest you will find the Menengai Crater. In the 1930s this area was gazetted as a forest. From west to east, Ngachura and Bahati are the closest residential neighbourhoods; south, Milimani Estate; and north, Olo-Rongai. Set separate from the jungle are two government buildings in Kenya: Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and Nakuru General Prison. A project to explore for geothermal energy is being carried out beneath the Menengai Crater by the Geothermal Development Company. There are animals, insects, and birds in the forest. Some of the Mammals include the olive baboon, Kirk’s dik-dik, black-faced vervet monkey, rock hyrax, and mountain reedbuck. Other bird species include African spotted eagles, African marsh harriers, Abyssinian ground hornbills, turn-tailed ravens, Horus swifts, and Verreaux’s eagles (found only in Menengai Forest, Nakuru). Spiders, butterflies, and molluscs are among the other animals.
Hyrax Hill
A ancient site called Hyrax Hill can be found in Kenya’s Rift Valley province close to Nakuru. It is a rocky outcrop that is about half a km long and rises to a summit elevation of 1,900 metres above sea level. Louis Leakey made the initial discovery of the site in 1926 while conducting excavations at the neighbouring Nakuru Burial Site. Mary Leakey carried out the first significant excavations between 1937 and 1938. At Hyrax Hill, there are two separate zones of occupation: one from the Pastoral Neolithic and the late Iron Age, and the other from the Sirikwa’s earlier Iron Age.
The hyrax is a small mammal that inhabits rocky places, and Hyrax Hill is named after it. Hyraxes were originally widespread in the rocky holes of Hyrax Hill, but their numbers have decreased recently as a result of the area’s quick urbanisation.
Louis Leakey discovered ancient villages on Hyrax Hill in 1926 while doing excavations for the nearby Nakuru Burial. He felt it was a relatively recent dwelling and decided not to dig it at the time because he had other sites to work on. Louis Leakey returned to the area in 1937 with his wife Mary Leakey. Mary Leakey began the primary excavations at Hyrax Hill. She identified and excavated both Site I and Site II between 1937 and 1938.
Dating the sites at the time was challenging because there was no carbon dating technology. Leakey mischaracterized the Iron Age “Sirikwa Holes” as an earlier settlement with “pit-dwellings.” After the National Museums of Kenya acquired Hyrax Hill in 1965, excavations at the site did not resume until Ron Clark and museum personnel completely excavated one of the Sirikwa holes for the museum’s display.
