Too many flamingos to count

From the distance, they seem like a pinkish blur on the edge of Lake Nakuru, speckled with dashes of white. The lake is famous for its Lesser and Greater Flamingos, and some four million gather here in August when it actually becomes hard to see the water in between the birds. 

We arrived just as the birds were beginning to fly to the lake (they breed elsewhere), feeding on the algae that blossoms in the droppings-rich waters.

The mass of pink makes an alluring sight, but get close and things become a little less romantic; the shore is smothered in washed-up feathers and bone, and the birds certainly don’t smell as sweet as they look!