The pink waters of Lake Nakuru

The vibrant pink dotting the dark blue water grabs my attention immediately. The pink seems to go on forever and as we drive closer, the pink line begins to take the shape of 1000s of flamingos wading through the still waters of Lake Nakuru. What an unbelievable sight!

Thousands of flamingos wading through the still waters of Lake Nakuru, Kenya.

Lake Nakuru National Park, one of Kenya’s top parks, was the first stop of our four-day Kenyan safari. This park is most famous for the 1000s of flamingos who make their home here in the alkaline rich waters.

Thousands of flamingos make their home in the alkaline rich waters of Lake Nakuru.

Once we finally leave the water’s edge, we were off in our white safari van to explore the rest of the park. While Lake Nakuru doesn’t have the animal count that some of the larger parks have, if you’re lucky you might catch a glimpse of the elusive rhino. Today, we managed to see four of these huge animals grazing far enough from any trail to get a good photo, but since they were the only member of the Big Five that I didn’t see last time, seeing them from a distance was good enough for me. Here in Kenya, the Big Five are made up of elephants, lions, leopards, water buffalo and rhinos. On today’s drive we found three of the five- rhino, leopard and water buffalo, so we are off to a good start!

Water buffalo grazing in Lake Nakuru National Park. Behind them, 1000s of pink flamingos dot the shores of the lake in Kenya.