Tag: lake Naivasha

Angel’s Ark on Naivasha’s water

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Sailing to the island and beyond

By Rupi Mangat  

Above: Sailing on Angel’s Ark on Lake Naivasha to Crescent Island. Credit Bonnie Dunbar

The house is legendary as is the lake on whose shores it rests. Kilimandege – the hill of the birds has seen many novel visitors, chief amongst them Sally the hippo who wandered through the doors to sit in the lounge. The white-washed house was home to the famous couple Alan and Joan Root who shot some of the first epic movies on wildlife like the unforgettable Mysterious Castles of Clay and Mzima, Portrait of a Spring.

On the verandah of Kilimandege House looking out to Lake Naivasha. Picture: Rupi Mangat
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Maasai giraffe at Ecoscapes Conservancy Lake Naivasha

A Weekend Away on Lake Naivasha

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By Rupi Mangat

Above: Maasai giraffe at Ecoscapes Conservancy Lake Naivasha

Published: Saturday Nation 4 April 2020

We’re in a land from the time of the dinosaurs. While there may or may not have been dinosaurs around Lake Naivasha, there’s a tiny wasp that has been around for some 60 million years ago when dinosaurs where going out of fashion.

Driving on Moi North tarmac road that circles part of the freshwater lake that is the highest of the rift lakes, the earth road that follows is a gorgeous grove of fig trees – Ficus wakefieldii to be precise because there are over 750 species of fig trees in the world. Each one of them has strong trunks with wide spread branches that look like a work of art in a natural gallery.

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Let’s Go to Hell

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Published: December 2007

Above: A boulder blocks the slot canyon at Hells Gate National Park, Kenya. by Heyandrewhyde

Fiery mountains spitting out red-hot molten lava, earth-shattering forces from deep in the earth’s belly and floods have shaped what is a trip to ‘hell’.

‘Let’s go to hell,” says our local Maasai guide from the Olkaria Maasai clan living in and around Hell’s Gate National Park, an hour’s drive from Kenya’s capital city Nairobi.

The trip to hell sounds funny for we’re in a very picturesque setting with the scent of the leleshwa, a shrub of the dry lands used by the Maasai as a deodorant by sticking the leaves under their underarms.

“Okay, let’s go to hell,” replies the group of well-fed women.

Gorge,Hell's Gate National Park by Toppazz (800x600)
Gorge,Hell’s Gate National Park by Toppazz

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A Night with the Stars at Lake Naivasha

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Above: Evening light on shores of Lake Naivasha. Copyright Desire James Wainaina

Published: 20 April 2019

Grey shafts of light stream from the clouds to the lake casting an ethereal glow in the late afternoon. Fishermen stride into the freshwater lake on the floor of the Great Rift Valley. In the cooling day, shy waterbuck emerge from the grove of yellow fever trees nibbling the soft grasses along the swampy shores as dainty jacanas on long skinny legs trod the floating mass of water hyacinth while the cormorants deck the trees ready to settle for the night.

Lake Naivasha KWS ground Copyright Desire James Wainaina (800x600)
A walk in the yellow barked acacia forest at Lake Naivasha by the KWS ground. Copyright Desire James Wainaina

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Swan Lake: A Fascinating Performance at Lake Oloiden

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Above: Great white pelicans herding fish for breakfast. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Replace the swan with pelicans because in Africa we have pelicans and not swans. We’re sailing on Lake Oloiden that’s changes dramatically every so often that it keeps everyone guessing – what next? Salty or fresh?

 

We’ve woken up to a spectacular performance by the pelicans – that is the Great white pelicans – performing a ballet that’s captivating. On a blue lake, flotillas of the great white birds synchronize their dive in the water, upturning their white butts like a ballerina’s tutu while their enormous yellow bills vanish in the water to swallow the fish they have herded below. It’s spectacular.

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