The Great Rift Valley covers 8,700 Kms. (5,400 miles) running from Jordan Valley in the Middle East and taking in the whole of the Red Sea before cutting through Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and finally reaching the Indian Ocean at Beira. It contains seven lakes all of which have no outlets. These are Lake Turkana (The Jade Sea ), Baringo, Bogoria, Nakuru, Elmentaita, Naivasha and Lake Magadi.

The high rate of evaporation is the only major way through which water escapes from the lakes. The evaporation leaves behind a large accumulation of salts and minerals in the lakes. This makes all but two of the lakes (Naivasha and Baringo ) contain high alkaline contents, a factor that makes the highly alkaline soils in and around the lakes turn bones and ivory into fossils.
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Lake Naivasha (170 Sq. Kms)

Just half-way before Lake Nakuru and about an hour’s drive from Nairobi, is Lake Naivasha, the “Sunshine Lake”, lying at about 1890 meters above sea level. It is a strangely fresh water lake on the floor of the Rift Valley with no outlet, but believed to have an underground seepage flow.

The lake’s views are dominated by the shadow of Mt. Longonot 2,777 metres (9,109 ft.) a partly extinct volcano which has been recently (1983) declared a national park (52 Sq. Kms.) and whose fantastic views can be obtained from the eastern escarpment on the scenic highway to the region.
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Kariandusi Pre-Historic Site

On the way to Nakuru, is Kariandusi Pre-historic site discovered by Dr. L. Leakey in 1928 and excavated in 1929 to 1947. Amongst the exhibits in its museum are Stone-Age hand axes, obsidian or black volcanic glass knives and a molar of the straight-tusked elephant (a species of elephant that once existed in England and the rest of Europe before it became extinct.
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Nakuru Town

Nakuru town, 157 kilometres north-west of Nairobi, is the fourth largest town in the country. It was started in 1900 as a resting camp by the Uganda Railway builders before they started the climb of the Rift Valley’s Western Escarpment. It has become the centre of the farming community in the Rift Valley province with modern shopping facilities, sports, clubs and high class hotels.
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Lake Nakuru National Park (188 sq. kms)

Three kilometres south of Nakuru Town. It was established in 1960 as the first bird sanctuary in Africa. The combination of sunshine and alkaline waters creates ideal conditions for the growth of microscopic Blue algae which is the first link in food chain and which forms food for one to two million lesser flamingo, making the lake the greatest bird spectacle on earth where flocks of about 300,000 birds can be seen at one sighting.

The population of flamingoes undergoes great fluctuations from year to year when some of them migrate up or down the Rift Valley visiting other lakes like Lake Natron in Tanzania, Magadi, Elmenteita, Bogoria or Lake Turkana depending on whichever lake is producing the best food for them at a given time.

The lake shores and hinterland abound with forest and plains game. Among the mammals, Waterbuck are the most numerous while leopard and rhino are the most exciting.

The Park has been established as a special rhino sanctuary where over 35 Black rhinos and about 10 White rhinos have been placed behind electric fencing and safe from poachers.
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Lake Bogoria National Reserve

About 80 kilometres north of Nakuru town in the Great Rift Valley (Size: 107 sq. kms), is a soda impregnated shallow lake (2 metres deep, former lake Hannington) which was established as a National Reserve in November, 1983. It is one of the most beautiful and spectacular of Kenya’s Rift Valley lakes. One hundred years ago (1892), the Great geologist J.W. Gregory described the lake as “the most beautiful view in Africa”.

Today, that view has not changed. It's exciting steam jets with boiling geysers and fumaroles strongly indicating the volcanic activities which resulted in the creation of the Great Rift Valley, is a geological wonder no one can afford to miss. Thousands of both Lesser and Greater flamingo migrate to the lake from Lake Nakuru when the water levels in the latter become low. It is Kenya’s best place to see Greater Kudu, which are readily seen on the eastern shores of the lake.
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Lake Baringo

A little further north, from Lake Bogoria is Lake Baringo. The Lake houses schools of hippo and crocodile; but its greatest attraction is the multitude of birds where over 400 species have been identified. Gibraltar island in the lake offers the largest colony of Goliath heron in East Africa. Other common birds include: Grebes, Pelican, Egrets, Storks, Geese, Ducks, Eagles, Plovers, Sandgrouse, Bee-eater, Hornbills, Honey guide, Shrikes and many others.
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South - Turkana (1091 Sq. Kms.) and Nasolot National Reserve (92 Sq. kms)

The reserves were established in 1979 for the preservation of the remaining wildlife species in Turkana District which like the Turkana people have adapted to the harsh and arid environment. There are limited forest and plains game like elephant, buffalo, eland, impala, lesser kudu and many other lower species found in arid and semi-arid zones.

Nasolot has beautiful scenery, overlooking the Turkwell Gorge. The reserves are suitable for camping safaris as there are no accommodation facilities within or near the reserves.
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Lake Turkana

Lake Turkana, “The Jade Sea” is the largest lake in Kenya on the floor of the Great Rift Valley (about 255 by 50 kms). It is an inland sea in the middle of a desert which offers the latest tourist attraction in the country and stretches into Ethiopia in the north where several rivers from the Ethiopian Highlands including the Omo River enter its waters. The region’s temperature may rise to 145 F (63 C).

Count Sammuel Teleki Von Szek was the first white man to see the lake in March 1888. He named it Lake Rudolf in honor of his patron the Austrian Archduke .The name was, however, changed to Lake Turkana in 1975 by the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. In Lake Turkana giant Nile perch grow to over 200 Ibs and may reach 400 Ibs, much to the delight of the sportsfishermen but commercial fishermen look for the more palatable Nile Tilapia which are dried or frozen and marketed in Nairobi and other towns in the country.

The lake’s central island, an active volcano, right at the centre of the lake, which sometimes belches out clouds of sulphurous steam and smoke, was established as a National park in 1983 for the protection of the breeding ground for the Niles crocodile.
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South Island National Park (39sq. Kms)

Like the Central Island, the South Island was established in 1983 for the protection of the breeding ground for the Nile Crocodile, the Hippos and its unique venomous snakes - Puff adders, cobra and vipers. It is at the centre of the El-Molo country- a surviving tribe just emerging from the Stone-Age standard of living
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Sibiloi National Park (1,570 Sq. Kms)

The remotest park in Kenya about 960 kilometers by road from Nairobi via Marsabit and about 320 kilometers from Marsabit town. It was established on the eastern shores of Lake Turkana (The Jade Sea) in 1973 for the preservation of the valuable archeological sites found there and the protection of the greatest crocodile concentration in the world, found in the lake. It is rich in fossil remains of animals and human beings bearing clues of the origins of modern man and his predecessors dating back nearly three million years and has been consequently named the “Cradle of Mankind”. Koobi Fora is the name given to the 2,600 sq. Kms (1,000 Sq. miles) fossil rich region where fossil remains of extinct elephant and footprints of Homo Erectus - our closest ancestors, have been discovered.

The locations of the most important finds can be visited. Four particular treasures are: the shell of a giant tortoise dating back 3 million years, a set of jaws over 5 ft long from a crocodile believed to have been over 45 ft in length and the extinct Behemoth, forbear of the elephant with massive tusks, both dating back 1.5 million years and the hominid (early man) finds.
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