south rift region

This circuit comprises the most varied as well as some of the best known attractions in Kenya, including the famed Masai Mara National Reserve and Lake Naivasha making it the ideal destination for your first safari experience.

The popular and easily accessible lake Nakuru National Park is justly famed for its large flamingo population and its rhino sanctuary.

The Masai Mara National Reserve is without doubt Kenya’s most highly regarded wildlife experience. It is the northern most point of the famous migration of wildebeest across the Serengeti Plains that occurs each year between July and September.

To the North, meanwhile, lies breathtaking Lake Naivasha, the most southerly of a series of Rift Valley lakes within Kenya and once the location of a flying boat service to London.

Located very close to Naivasha is Hell’s Gate National Park, a perfect place for hiking, camping, rock climbing and bird watching.

HELL’S GATE NATIONAL PARK:

Just off Lake Naivasha. Famous for it’s natural hot geysers, eagle and vulture breeding grounds, visitors have a choice of driving or walking within the park. Rock climbing and horseback safaris can also be arranged. Special locations in the park include; Fischer’s Tower, Central Tower and Njorowa Gorges. Two extinct volcanoes; Olkaria and Hobley’s are worth a trip.

Natural steam vents rise from fissures in the volcanic rock. Obsidian, a striking black glassy rock formed from cooled molten lava is a feature of the landscape. Game to view includes; Masai Giraffe, Eland, Heartebeest, lion, leopard, cheetah and hyaena.

A haven for ornithologists and rock climbers, the cliffs of Hell’s Gate are the breeding grounds for vultures, Verreaux Eagles, Augur Buzzard and thousands of Swifts. 103 species of birds have been recorded in the park.

LAKE NAIVASHA

Driving northwest from Nairobi, through Limuru and then continuing down the escarpment and proceeding north across the floor of the Rift Valley, one reaches the first of the Rift Lakes. Kenya’s seven Rift Valley lakes run from north to south on the map. All are the setting for magnificent bird-life. The lakes are a necklace of glittering jewels along the floor of Africa where water is precious and sight of it is always rejuvenating. Lakes Naivasha, Elementeita and Nakuru, whose incredibly blue waters reflect sun-drenched mountains, may be seen in a day excursion from Nairobi, although there is accommodation at Lake Naivasha, Nakuru and at Elelmenteita.

The swirling inland winds which send ‘dust devils’ cavorting wildly across the plains make for ideal sailing on papyrus-fringed fresh water Lake Naivasha which is set at the foot of Mount Longonot 2,776 meters (9,111 ft), on the north side. The fishing is good for black bass and tilapia. It was on Lake Naivasha that East Africa’s first air-passengers used to land in the flying boats of Imperial Airways.

Behind the lake at “Hell’s Gate Gorge” where bat-eared foxes roam a moonlike landscape, there are Hot Springs and geysers. The nearby cliffs are the home of the Verreaux’s Eagle. Both Mount Longonot and Hell’s Gate Gorge are National parks to preserve their unique attractions.

Smallest of Kenya’s five alkaline lakes in the Rift, Lake Elementeita sometimes has breeding colonies of greater flamingo. Kariandusi Prehistoric Site between the lake and the main Nairobi/Nakuru Road is well worth a visit.

LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK

Altitude:            4,000 to 5,770 feet above sea level.

Area:                188 square kilometers.

Airstrips:           Naishi Airstrip.

Opened:            June 1968

Activities:          Game Drives, Rhino Sanctuary and bird life.

Lake Nakuru is world famous for, and was created a National Park to protect, its stunning flocks of lesser flamingo, which literally turn its shores pink. Its birdlife is world-renowned: a beacon for leading ornithologists, scientists and wildlife filmmakers. The park spans an attractive range of wooded and bush grassland around the lake, offering wide ecological diversity, from Lake Water, woodland to the rocky escarpment and ridges.

Notable game within the lake includes hippo and clawless otters. On the shores roam waterbuck, Bohor’s Reedbuck and Zebra. The woodlands and forest are now home to both black and white rhino. In 1987 only two black rhino remained following the ravages of poaching. By creating a rhino sanctuary within the park and reintroducing a breeding herd from Laikipia, the KWS has now successfully re-established rhino in the park.

Game viewing is relatively easy: buffalo, leopard, lion, Rothschild Giraffe, White and Black Colobus monkey are plentiful in the forest. The bush lands offer eland, Steinbok, impala, Chandler’s Reedbuck and dik dik, whilst rock hyrax and klipspringer occupy the cliffs and escarpment.

Accommodation includes: Lake Nakuru Lodge (68 rooms) and Sarova Lion Hill Lodge (67 rooms), K.W.S. Guest House, five campsites, self-help banda and two picnic sites: Makalia Falls and Njoro River Mouth.

MASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE

Altitude:            5,000 feet above sea level.

Area:                1,510 square kilometers (Samburu Area).

Airstrips:           Keekorok, Siana, Ol’ Kiombo, Serena, Musiara, Ngerende Airstrips.

Opened:            November 1974

Activities:          Game and bird viewing, Nature walks, Hot Air Ballooning, Maasai Culture.

It is probably the most visited reserve in Kenya. It offers breathtaking views of vast rolling plains, hills and woodland groves all well watered by the majestic Mara River, an extraordinary density of animals including the “big five” and a wide variety of plains game.

An impressive feature is the annual migration of over a million Wildebeest, thousands of Zebra and gazelle from the plains of the south-western Serengeti that cross the political borders and rivers to reach the Mara’s grasslands from late June, tracked by predators; lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and circled by vultures as their journey unfolds. The dramatic river crossings are a gruesome spectacle of survival of the fittest.

Apart from the annual migration, game viewing is excellent year round. The elephants, black rhino, buffalo, zebra, hartebeest, topi and the big cats roam the plains and the rivers are home to hippo and crocodiles. There are 452 species of birds, 53 of which are raptors.

Accommodation ranges from stone built lodges to luxury tented camps. The area to the north owned by the Maasai offers the same great game viewing, game walks and night game drives.