Lake Naivasha

Monday morning we woke up and even before breakfast got to experience some wildlife within the grounds of our lodge, including baboons wandering near the walking paths, a rock hyrax in a tree, and a pair of zebra just outside the fences of the resort.

Rock Hyrax

Zebra Outside the Resort

Baboons (zoom in to center) in Resort

After breakfast, we had a short game viewing drive from our lodge generally to the exit of the Lake Nakuru National Park.  

White Rhino

Buffalo

Eland Antelope

As we neared the exit of the park, the roads are generally at an incline as we begin to exit the Great Rift Valley.  Stephen noticed that the engine was losing power as we were going up each incline, and regardless of the gear, it seemed the RPMs would simply not increase beyond idle.  Even on flat land the van was beginning to go very slow.  At one incline that was only slightly steep the van couldn’t make it up.  He had to back up and try to gather a bit of momentum and try again.  Further on as the van continued to struggle, he got out of the car to check both the engine from the internal compartment as well as the access panel on the front of the van.  He seemed to think the fuel injectors had loosened and were not positioned correctly.  He attempted to bang them back into place. When he got back in the vehicle, it seemed to be working slightly better, but still not right.  Each incline that we came to, you could feel the anxiety among the three of us as to whether the vehicle would be able to make it.

As continued to crawl back to the exit of the park, Stephen said that we get out of the park we will stop at the mechanic before continuing onward to Naivasha.  He also said, “Hopefully it is something quick”.   We pulled into the smaller streets of the town of Nakuru lined and found our way to a very small mechanic shop on a street lined with local shops.  Stephen talked with several of the workers and punctuating the Swahili I several times heard the word “Check Engine”. Clearly the Check Engine light had come on along with the issues we were having.  At one point the younger workers walked away, and an older individual (probably my age) came back to take a look.  Stephen told us they had gone to get the head engineer to diagnose the issue.    He gave the car a visual inspection, and then jumped in to give it a test drive while we remained in the back.  After driving around the town a bit, he pulled us into another shop, which appeared to be a car wash/detailing shop of some sort. A lot more discussion in Swahili occurred while we sat there, (again often referencing the Check Engine light).  At this point Stephen told us that he had called his
office and there was another vehicle nearby that they would swap if they weren’t able to get this fixed right away. 

Fortunately, after not too much more time they found the issue, and it was incredibly simple.  A wire that connected to the camshaft sensor had somehow gotten severed resulting in the issue.  They immediately repaired it, and I was able to see some of the work being done.  I don't know the specifics, but a lot of electrical tape was involved.  Once complete, the engineer jumped in, turned the key and revved the engine, resulting in a nice strong roar.  We were back in action!  The entire ordeal took less than an hour out of the day.  Much of the itinerary was intended to be relaxing at the lodge, so this was really not much of a setback. 

Naivasha was back the way we had come the day before and was roughly half the distance back to

Nairobi.  We arrived at lunch time and pulled into the Enashipai resort.  It did not take long to realize this resort was several notches above the one we had just left on the luxury scale.  While our first resort was quite nice, this one was expansive and exquisite.  It was much bigger, with onsite amenities including conference center, wedding venue, multiple different spa packages, sauna, pool, bar, a few restaurants, a night club, and beautifully manicured gardens lawns, and walkways between.  If we were visiting Kenya for purely a relaxing tropical getaway and desired to simply enjoy a resort environment, this would be a place to do it.  However, Ryan doesn’t generally vacation that way (there is usually not much relaxing when travelling with me).  The resort also had a path that led to a view of Lake Naivasha with an outdoor bar, and a fenced off section where some Impala were gathered.

We were offered a bit of free time to grab lunch, wander the grounds, and then meet later in the afternoon for our water and walking safari.

Outdoor Shower

Enashipai Grounds

After getting settled in our luxurious room, which included a very large tiled outdoor shower off of our bathroom, (as well as an indoor bathtub that included a shower head and curtain as well), we headed out to meet Stephen. From our lodge it was only a short drive to the Crescent Island Camp, named after the small crescent shaped island in Lake Naivasha. This portion of the tour was a separate tour offered exclusively by that camp, so Stephen handed us off to Joseph, who would take us on our water safari, and bring us to Crescent Island for our walking safari.  As we walked down to the boat, there were some ruined buildings that we walked past.  Joseph explained that back in the 70s, the water on the lakes in the valley was much higher.  (See yesterday’s post which explains the Great Rift Valley lake system).  As the water levels dropped over the next 40 years, it was thought the drop would be permanent as a result of development and irrigation taking water from the water table that creates the lakes. However, suddenly in 2019 the lakes’ levels rose considerably flooding may buildings throughout the area that had been built close to its shores.  The lakes have receded a little bit, and now these flooded structures sit dry, but abandoned.

We came to where the boats were docked. They were long narrow skiffs, and we climbed in.  Joseph

took us out and pointed out the various wildlife in the water---Egyptian Geese, cormorant, and fish eagle.  In one section of the lake, Joseph directed our attention to what I otherwise would have assumed were driftwood, and said there are hippos over there.  Sure enough as I looked more closely they were moving, and a couple times they raised their heads out of the water.  A smaller younger hippo at point did a belly roll and for a few second we could see his feet in the air as they came around. 

Hippos

As we pulled further past the hippos, we encountered a few locals who had waded out waist deep and were fishing in the waters.

Even further on, Joseph turned the boat around towards the island.  Before reaching the island Joseph slowed the boat about 100 feet from some tall dead trees. He said to us “I have a fish.  Get your video ready and watch the fish eagle over there.  We got ready, and he let out a loud whistle.  He then threw the fish out into the water, not towards the bird, but far to the side of us so the bird would have to fly quite a distance to get it.  The bird took notice and flew out and gracefully scooped up the fish mid-flight and went back off into the distance to eat it.

After this show, we headed to a dock on the island. As we slowly pulled up, I could see a channel had been dug out of the shallow water.  The silt and vegetation that had been dug for the channel was simply piled next to it to make a make-shift dock.  Walking on this dock was a strange sensation, as the material was mostly old seaweed-like vegetation and was exceptionally spongey.  We were essentially walking through the edge of the swamp until we got to firm dry land 20 yards further.

At the dock we were met by Peter who was our next guide.  He explained that where we were walking was currently  a peninsula again instead of actually an island due to the waters having receded a bit since 2019.  As we continued we walked past a group of about waterbuck which were  no more than 20 feet from us.   They raised their heads curiously from munching the grass to look at us and see why we were there.

Selfie with the Waterbuck

Beyond the waterbuck were some zebra, which also exhibited some mild curiosity at the humans walking only a few feet from them. 

Selfie with the Zebra

Further on was a herd of wildebeest.  Aimee asked if they are at all dangerous.  Peter said they are not dangerous, and if you get close they will grunt at you, and if you keep walking they will all run away.

Aimee with Wildebeast in Distance

Wildebeast

As we walked a bit deeper into the island we came across a handful of giraffe.  One of the younger ones, who Peter said they had named (a name I cant remember…maybe Tom) walked directly towards us and got about 10 feet away before stopping.  Peter said that particular giraffe thinks he is brave and likes to get closer to the people, but the rest of his family do not.

Tom the Giraffe

From here we headed back to the boat and ultimately headed back to camp where we cleaned up and enjoyed some drinks at the bar, dinner, and a nightcap poolside.