The Aberdares are abundant with a great variety of wild animals including rhinos, red duikers and bushbucks. If the visitor is especially lucky, he will see the more elusive of the mountain dwellers,the shy bongo antelope, the black leopard and the giant forest hog, or even the crowned eagle hunting colobus monkeys, one of its favourite food.
Lake Baringo
A freshwater lake, 200 kms north of Naivasha, Baringo supports an enormous number of bird species and a large number of hippos. Excursions to see an Njemp village and dancing, a local snake farm, and leisurely bird-watching trips by boat or on foot.
Lake Bogoria National Park
Quite unlike Lake Baringo in appearance, Lake Bogoria is a shallow soda lake, home to a large number of birds and the rare Lesser Kudu. Scalding hot springs and geysers at the southern end of the lake spurt and steam their alkaline waters.
Lake Nakuru
National Park The first rhino sanctuary in Kenya, this small but beautiful park lies
8 kms south of Nakuru covering an area of 200 sq kms. The park is unquestionably “the greatest ornithological spectacle on earth”, serving as the congregation point for a roseate mass of some 100,000 to 2 million flamingoes and over 450 other species of birds a spectacle of immense beauty. Other wildlife to be seen in the park are the water-bucks, reedbucks, zebras, impalas, gazelles, lions, leopards, buffalos, hippos and rhinos especially in the olive tree forest to the south-west.
Lake Naivasha
Covering 170 sq kms this beautiful freshwater lake, surrounded by rolling hills and extinct volcanoes, is home to over 450 species of birds. The lake's water is used to irrigate the bountiful agriculture on its shores and a visit to these farms, for those interested in agriculture, is worthwhile. Strawberries, flowers, asparagus and numerous other crops are grown for domestic consumption
and export. Black bass and tilapia make for entertaining fishing and a delicious meal.
Amboseli National Park
180 kms due south of Nairobi, this 3,200 sq kms park is everyone's picture of Kenya - a lion, elephant or cheetah against a backdrop of Africa's highest mountain, the snowcapped Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 metres). Either at sunrise or sundown Amboseli resembles a pantomime set, with mammals downstage, luminous in strong pink or amber gels, with the mountain looming above, creating the finest photogenic backdrop to a game park anywhere in the world.
The Amboseli swamps attract a large variety of wildlife including wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, cheetah and leopard. The parks checklist numbers over 420 species of
birds.
