Lake Naivasha abounds in bio-diversity (Read: Take A Boat Ride on Lake Naivasha, Kenya), allright, but the woods bordering it are also as much a treasure trove. Away for the swamps and the hippos, our boatman made his way through a clearing to anchor the boat and take us for a walk into the woods around the lake. We were excited…Are the Giraffes? And Zebras?, we asked him. He smiled and asked us to follow him. With a unmistakable twinkle in his eye, he walked ahead, and we ran after him like little kids. That twinkle must be a promise, we reasoned.
And soon enough, we spotted deers. Since we had seen many back in India, we kept following our guy. A 15-minute walk through the woods, a patchy village road, with locals nodding a knowing smile at us, and children eyeing us in their usual curiosity, got us to yet another edge of the Lake Naivasha where an entire family of zebras were grazing. Zebras!!! For the first time in our life! A whole lot of them. Right in front of us!
We walked up to them for photographs. They were obviously used to attention, for none of them shied away. They kept grazing, nonchalant, oblivious to the wide-eyed, squealing life-jacket clad visitors who had come across the sea from a land thousands of kilometers away, just to see them. Resplendent in their black and white stripes, elegant in their gait, we squealed around some more to capture them in our lenses and pose alongside them. And were reluctant to leave when our boatman said, “Time up, let’s go back to the boat”.
We did. For, we were famished. And ran back to the boat, looking forward to seeing a few more zebras and giraffes later in the day, at Hell’s Gate National Park.
Pingback: Itinerary for Nairobi, Naivasha & Maasai Mara in Kenya