Rift Valley

From Amboseli, we drove back to Nairobi then down into the Rift Valley, stopping for a quick break at a viewpoint where Susan bought a soapstone elephant and we negotiated one of the strangest FX deals I’ve ever done: the souvenir-seller produced a two-Singapore-dollar note and asked whether we’d buy it off him. I offered 150 Kenyan shillings, which was actually a few bob more than it’s worth, but nobody was getting rich off that deal, anyway. It’s strange to be in a country where saying “a few bob” isn’t just archaic: KFC had billboards advertising some kind of special deal for “500 bob” in Nairobi.

A moody buffalo
Zebras
Rhino
Bambi of some sort

Nakuru Lake has lots of buffalo, a few white rhinos, and is famous for flamingoes. Strangely, we had been closer to more flamingoes in Amboseli, but there’s a bit of the park, just by the lake, where rangers are stationed, so that you can walk to the shore rather than being in a vehicle for the entire time. Walking back to the bus, one of the rangers called me “uncle”, which I really wasn’t sure how to react to. Susan thought it was hilarious.

Flamingoes on Lake Nakuru
Lake Nakuru shore
Lake Nakuru shore
Lake Nakuru shore

Of course, there was a guy with an enormous lens taking pictures of birds; I decided to channel my inner Andy Goldsworthy and take pictures of footprints beside the lake with my very small lens. And, just before dusk, my camera’s battery went flat and we saw moodily-lit buffaloes and some young hyaenas.