On 12/12/2024 our schedule got switched around. We were supposed to visit Lake Elementaita, do a boat ride on Lake Naivasha, and have the option to visit Hell’s Canyon (using the resorts drivers if we chose to). The boat ride was going to happen first but, at the last minute we changed to visit Lake Elementaita first.
Lake Elementaita is called a soda lake, which means that it is highly alkaline (with a PH balance between 9 and 12). This makes the lake very important to certain birds, which resulted in it being declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Basically, it is a bird watchers paradise.
I have never been very interested in bird watching, but as my daughter has recently become interested and as I do not visit a lot of UNESCO world heritage sites, I figured that I should take as many pictures as I could. I am not much of a photographer and I’ve only shot a few birds outside of the water, so my pictures did not turn out as well as they could have (but I’ve learned a lot going through these pictures).
One the drive back to Lake Naivasha, it started to rain – not much (even by Seattle standards) – but this triggered two things:
- The Lake Naivasha boat ride got pushed back until the following morning.
- Hell’s gate was closed to visitors as it becomes very dangerous when it rains.
So we returned to the Lake Naivasha Sopa Resort in the nearly afternoon, but our potential activities were cancelled so we got another day of rest and relaxation.
Had I gone to Hell’s Gate (where the live-action Lion King move was filmed), I would have seen this:
Instead, we hung out, read books, and I took this picture of a monkey:
Running tally of the animals seen so far:
- Big five: 4 (Elephant, Lion, Rhinoceros, Water Buffalo)
- Ugly five: 4 (Hyena, Vulture, Marabou Stork, Warthog)