Serenity of Lake Naivasha

by Newton Muya (Kenya)

I didn't expect to find Kenya

Lake Naivasha has always warmed up to my heart mainly because of the serenity,authentic African experience and the feeling that I am actually in the pridelands (From the movie Lion King).Reports from the movie are that scenes from the award winning film were inspired by the the sites and sceneries surrounding the Lake Naivasha. Being a very long weekend,I packed my bags for a getaway by the lake accompanied by 3 of my friends ready for memorable and new experiences. The journey to Naivasha town was approximately one and half hours long and was embodied by site-seeing since the road snakes just above The Great Rift Valley.The weather and daylight were picture perfect and my new Nikon D5300 camera was ready for all the action. We finally reached Naivasha town and we stopped over to get some supplies that would cover us for the entire weekend.We had booked our tented camp just on the shores of the lake through Air bnb and our host phoned us just to confirm that we were on our way and pin us the exact location since the area is known for an array of world class lodges,campsites and getaways. The day was still quite young and so we had enough time for any activities that Naivasha had to offer.We arrived at the campsite and to our surprise it was much larger than we had pictured it different species of birds all over the place.We did see a small peacock with a colorful iridescent tail at the car park,common bulbuls ,superb starlings and a white fronted bee eater that was perched on a cable. We found our tents already pitched a few yards from the electric fence that fenced the lake and the campsite owing to the existence of dale of hippos that resided on the shores of the lake.This freaked us out but we were assured of our safety as long as we abided by the regulations of our campsite(Fish Eagle Inn Campsite). After enjoying a short meal of packed food that we had bought on the way,we decided to have a boat ride.We met the boat driver just by the shores of the lake and he ushered us into a fairly small boat.The boat driver was quite knowledgeable about birds and told us that we would spot a dozen of species on the lake.We went round some dead trees where there were abundant birds perched.I was able to identify a few Kingfishers,herons and African Jacanas. Most of the other species that the boat rider described to me were quite new and unfamiliar.Further into the lake were dense dales of hippos ,flamingos and white pelicans. We then headed to the final stop of the boat ride where we came across Zebras,Cape Buffaloes and Waterbucks. Due to the limitation of time,we had to cut short our boat-ride even though our boat driver seemed to be genuinely having a very great time owing to his interests in birds.We therefore headed back to the shores and back to our campsite since the evening was first approaching.Our campsite was well lit with slight music that came from an old speaker which was pinned to a small cage on an acacia tree. We light a bonfire as we roasted rib steaks that we had bought on our way.It was surely going to be sumptuous accompanied by the songs of the nightingales.We invited our boat driver so that we could share our meal with him as he gave us more stories about the lake and the area since he resided just next to the campsite.I envied his peaceful way of life with all the nature surrounding and tranquility as compared to the hustle and bustle of the city.