Lake Natron Walkingtours and Flamingos
Off the beaten track away from the masses! Real adventure seekers who visit Lake Natron, will be rewarded with a unique, near magical experience.
If rain has fallen, or not; if the millions of flamingo have arrived, or if the lake is still dry, it is an experience which cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world!
- Majestic and active volcano as a prominent backdrop
Sometimes one can even see the lava stream from Ol Doinyo Lengai, a sacred place to the Maasai. - Lake Natron
The lake fills up from mineral-rich water flowing down from the Great Rift Valley. However, in the dry season, the view becomes almost a moon landscape, in which bright pink cactus blooms contrast against the dry, dusty rocks. - Breeding ground for the endangered Lesser Flamingo
Lake Natron is a unique salt lake. In the dry season, a bacteria turns the dry surface red. It is also the most important breeding ground worldwide for the Lesser Flamingo. Each year, around February or March, enormous flocks of gaggling birds converge on the salt lake. And as suddenly as they arrive, they disappear in spectacular waves of pink. The quiet calmness returns.
Walk along the shore
A Maasai guide will take you for a walk along the shores of the lake. In the dry season, you feel as if you are in an apparently uninhabited, dessert-like dream world.
Hike to the Engaresero rivier
A Maasai guide will lead you along the ridges of the lake to the source of the Engaresero River. If rain has fallen up in the Rift Valley, water streams over the escarpment, forming waterfalls and streams of sparkling clear water which one can swim in.
Both walks are included when visiting Lake Natron.
Best time to visit Lake Natron
The period June-October is the best time for walking and hiking tours. You won’t find wildlife here, but the tracks are good. The weather at Lake Natron is primarily hot and mostly dry, and the coolest months are June through August, but some guests find these temperatures tropically warm. During the rainy period (November-May), some activities may be cancelled due to heavy rains.
Birding safari Lake Natron
The Rift Valley’s Lake Natron is the chosen mating ground of the endangered lesser flamingo. The long-legged waterfowl may flourish, but to any other living creature, Lake Natron is hell on earth. The lake’s steeply alkaline waters are a graveyard for thousands of small birds.
Best time to spot birds at Lake Natron: the flamingos of Natron lay their eggs normally during the end of the dry season in September and October but the hatching starts in the early parts of the wet season and climaxing by December.
**TAKE NOTE! THIS AREA IS UNDER THREAT!
There are plans to build a large salt factory on the shores of at the lake..
This will change the area irreversibly at immense cost to the habitat and ecosystem!