After leaving Lake Naivasha on Friday January 16th, we drove to Kembu Farm Camp at Njoro, Nakuru Kenya. Kembu Farm is a working 800 acre dairy farm which also breeds race horses and operates a campground.

Our campsite:

The dairy cows and dyed wool drying in the sun:

To help local women, the matriarch of the family started a knitting project on the farm 25 years ago. It has grown into a major local business with 200 women knitting. The women knit items at home (mostly stuffed animals) and come to the knitting barn to do the finishing and have the items go through quality control. Contracts have been made with fair trade shops all over the world, providing a wider audience for their wares. These dairy owners have really given back by providing opportunities for local women to generate needed income for their families.

A shot of Kembo Farms:

Lake Nakuru National Park – Saturday, January 17, 2015

The next morning we drove to Lake Nakuru National Park for a day of “game driving”. “Game Driving” is driving our Land Rover Defenders on the dirt roads of the National Park looking for animals. The level of Lake Nakuru is unusually high flooding some of the parks buildings and some of the park’s roads. Our plan was to drive around the lake and meet up at Monkey Point with the group for lunch. Some of the animals we saw included;

A live Cape Buffalo and a Cape Buffalo carcass:

Impala:

Vervet Monkey (we also called this species the “Blue Ball Monkey” – descriptive of the male’s genitalia):

Baboon Troop:

Mother Baboons with their offspring. We’ve also seen the babies clinging to the mother from underneath and suckling while the mother walks along.

A wide variety of birds:

A male Water Buck:

A female Water Buck:

An Eland in the foreground with Cape Buffalo and Flamingos in the background.

A dazzle of Zebra on the march:

Lunch at Monkey Point:

Lake Nakuru as seen from Monkey Point:

Rock Hyrax and Holly and Gill & Peter Marshall at Monkey Point:

A group photo at Monkey Point, Lake Nakuru, Kenya:

(From left to right: Jame Ray & Deb Thompson, Holly and Mark Melton, Jan Van der Walt, Jill Birch, Gill & Peter Marshall, Mike Gaunt, Judy & Ruben Crossley) Amanda Richter is not pictured, she took the photo.

Koggelmander – (the name in Afrikaans):

After lunch we continued the game drive and saw this harem of female Impala:

Zebra and Cape Buffalo graze side by side at the water’s edge:

Here’s a photo of a baby Zebra suckling its mother while a Cape Buffalo looks on. Baby Zebras have brown and white coats which change to black and white as they mature.

We noticed that the adult Zebras were protective of their babies. We saw one adult Zebra stand close to the road as if guarding the rest of the group.

Notice the large gash on the side of this Cape Buffalo. I presume he had a run-in with another animal at some point and survived.

Cape Buffalo are frequently seen taking mud baths.

We really hoped to see Rhinos at Lake Nakuru and we did spot them, but they were so far away I couldn’t get a good photo even with my longest lens. Hopefully, we’ll get to see Rhinos closer up before our trip is over.

We did get to see many flamingos – a real treat.

Thompson’s Gazelle

Cattle Egrets catch rides on Cape Buffalo

We had our “African Moment” as we exited the park. We were stopped by a man in a military uniform who asked to see our entrance ticket. This was puzzling to us, because as far as we could tell there was only one heavily guarded gate to get into the park. This also happened a few times in Morocco, where we were asked to produce our entrance ticket upon leaving. The guard who asked to see our ticket was very friendly and clearly enjoyed having Aussies, Brits and Americans in his park.