LAKES OF KENYA

First gazetted as a bird sanctuary, Lake Nakuru National Park is considered one of the best bird watching destinations in the world, with over 450 species to see. Literally millions of flamingoes feed from the alkaline lake of 60km². Around the lake are acacia woodlands, grassland and rocky hillsides. Buffalo, lion and leopard sightings are excellent in the park, which is also a rhino sanctuary. In all, over 50 mammal species live in the 188 km² national park.

Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake in Kenya, outside the town of Naivasha in Nakuru County, which lies north west of Nairobi. It is part of the Great Rift Valley

lake features include the Kesubo Swamp to the north and the Siracho Escarpment to the east, both within the National Reserve. The lake is also famous for geysers and hot springs along the bank of the lake and in the lake. In four locations around the lake can be observed at least 10 geysers, which erupt up to 5 m high.^[ Geyser activity is affected by the fluctuations of lake level, which may inundate or expose some geysers.

The lake area was the traditional home of the Endorois people, who were forced to leave the area in the 1970s and are now challenging their removal at the African  Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Lake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes, with a surface area of about 130 square kilometres (50 sq mi) and an elevation of about 970 metres (3,180 ft). The lake is fed by several rivers, Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel, and has no obvious outlet; the waters are assumed to seep through lake sediments into the faulted volcanic bedrock. It is one of the two freshwater lakes in the Rift Valley in Kenya, the other being Lake Naivasha. It lies off the beaten track in a hot and dusty setting and over 470 species of birds have been recorded there, occasionally including migrating flamingos. A Goliath heronry is located on a rocky islet in the lake known as Gibraltar.