Walking With the Animals at Lake Naivasha

To walk with wild animals in a park in Africa is a unique experience that few people have enjoyed.  The presence of predators often precludes this opportunity in most of the more famous parks such as the Masai Mara.  However, we are here at Lake Naivasha, one of those rare places where predators have been relocated due to the threat to the locals who live in the vicinity.  Which makes it possible to walk with some of Africa’s wild life!

We are camped here for 2 nights so there is time to relax, get caught up with laundry and do the boat ride in the morning.  We are headed to an island on the lake! 

This island is famous in that it has figured in the  filming of two movies – Out of Africa and Born Free.  We pile in to the boat in anticipation of an exciting day. 

We pass many hippos and water birds on the way there.  The boat ride gives us a chance to experience this stunning lake.  I relax and try to capture the magic of this lake through my lens.

We are greeted by herds of wildebeest at play and impala grazing but continue walking in search of giraffe and zebra.  It is quite amazing to be walking in the wide open spaces of this park and to see these animals while on foot. 

I am constantly amazed at how prolific the wild life is in Kenya and realise this is only a taste of what is to come when we visit the Masai Mara and Serengeti next.

We approach a tower of giraffes and watch them browsing on the trees.  I see a giraffe seated for the first time in my life!

We keep walking further and see the zebras, waterbuck and wildebeest up close.  What a different experience this is to viewing these animals from the inside of a truck!  On the way back we watch the hippos at play and I watch in amazement as an entire herd of waterbuck run out into the lake, scared off by a man on foot.  The mountains in the background provide a stunning back drop to another amazing moment in Africa!

We come back to camp on quite a high.  The walk was certainly a memorable experience for all of us and I am certainly glad I signed up for this opportunity.

 You will never come up against a greater adversary than your own potential, my young friend.  ~Michael Piller and Michael Wagner