Lake Naivasha

Lake Naivasha from the sailing club

Lake Naivasha, about a two hour drive from Nairobi, is beautiful. There are differing attitudes to it though. The lake has a sailing club which is mostly full of people who come down from Nairobi at weekends. Some of the people who live around the lake (I'm talking wazungu (whites)) don't really like the sailing club though. The sailing club is up on a hill and they sailing in the cresent of the lake (Crater Lake, I think it's called). It is safe (ish) to swim where the club is and the setting is just great. We stayed at the club as we were with a friend who is a member and if you've got one of those it is definately worth it. We camped, but there are bandas there, although they are a little unloved.

I also went with my parents to stay in one of the bandas at fisherman's. This is not that far from Naivasha town and it has a restaurant. When we were sitting having a beer at lunchtime we spotted Colubus monkeys playing in the trees. I obviously didn't do my best as a tourguide at this point, but I didn't realise it till only a few weeks ago. I was watching some wildlife program on tele with my parents and my Mum came out with 'But why are they so worked up about Colubus monkeys? They are really common aren't they?' Hah, no Colubus monkeys are really rare and they look like superheroes as they have white capes.

Things to do in Naivasha don't really involve exploring the town. You've about 5 seconds outside your car before a whole hoard of hustlers come up trying to sell fake DVDs. I never bought one, by the way, as we didn't have a tv. But people who have bought them only seem to report extreme dissatisfaction with them.

Much more betterer things to do involve going on a hippo trip and drinking cool beers in the shade of the trees by the lake. We also took a walk out along cresent island, which has fabulous birds and loads of antelopes etc. It's pretty hot walking but you can pretty much stick to the shade under the trees if you try quite hard.