White rhino slideshow

Nakuru offers the chance to get a close (and rare) look at rhinos – these Jurassic-like beauties have huge one-ton bodies, large heads and two horns.

White rhinos aren’t actually white – they range from yellowish brown to slate grey – and the name is said to have evolved from the Dutch word for wide (wijd).

Lake Nakuru National Park

On the third day of your Kenya tour, we went to Lake Nakuru, a saltwater lake that is only four feet deep. 

Nothing lives or grows in the water here, but the national park is most famous for two creatures: flamingos and the rhinos that graze in the marshy land nearby. 

The forest and grassy scrub that surround the lake also harbour all sorts of birds and one very unwelcome creature – huge and voracious mosquitoes that were specially bred to eat the smaller malaria-carrying mozzis! 

(Connie can finally put to good use the mosquito net her friend gave her!)

The grazing animals here seemed less skittish than in the Masai Mara, so we were able to get quite close; plenty of cape buffalo, zebra, impala, and baboons. 

We also came across five small fox cubs, that scampered away when they saw us (we couldn’t see their mum).