Rift Valley View Point and Lake Naivasha

After some intense days with lots of learning we had a planned day off to recharge our batteries. We decided to stay at Lake Naivasha for a night to enjoy a nice dinner and a boat safari before heading back to Nairobi. What can I say – absolutely worth it. On our way to lake Naivasha we stopped for 15 minutes at the Rift Valley view point.

Lake Naivasha is Rift Valley's highest lake (at 1884m above sea level) and is part of Lake Naivasha National Park. The park lies in the nortwest of the capital Nairobi, and its name is derived from the Masaai word “Naiposha” which means “rough water” because of its unusual sudden storms that arise always.

The park was established on April 10^th 1995 and it covers an area of 140 square kilometers. The biggest part of the park is covered by the fresh water lake.

Lake Naivasha national park is one of the two sites listed by Kanya as wetland of international importance under Ramsar convention (the other one is The Tana River Delta where our ranger team is operating). During our boat safari we had some encounters.

The park has over 400 bird species that is supported by the wide vegetation cover ranging from the swamp vegetation to forests. The thick papyrus is a home for more swamp species like cormorans, weaver bids, gonolek, Paleatric duck, African fish eagles, Oxyura, flamingo, red-knobbed coot, little grebb, African Spoonbill, Porzana.

Of course the park also has plenty of other animals, in total more than 100 species of grazers and hunters. There are both big cats like leopards, lions and others as well as hippos, giraffes, zebras, buffalo and many more. We got lucky and saw a lot of the grazers, a highlight was our encounter with giraffes.

Lake Naivasha is one of the primary drinking holes for buffalos, zebras, elands, impalas, waterbucks and other grazers, as well as a favorite place for hippos to cool themselves during the day.

The day at Lake Naivasha was not only hepful to re-energize on a physical level but also a mentally one. Witnessing the beauty of the nature and the importance of the lake and wetlands to the animals refueled my motivation why I started Ulinzi Conservation Coffee!

Don't get me wrong, I am 100% dedicated to Ulinzi Conservation Coffee, our values and the mission we want to achieve - but there are times when the workload beside my main job tests my will power.

After this day off, Nairobi was the next topic on our agenda, in my next post I will share our visit at the dry mill of Kahawa Bora Millers.