Why this ride
On the way it passes Lake Nakuru, Lake Bogoria and back through Lake Nakuru. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It strings together lakeside roads.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Lake Elementaita and Lake Bogoria
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 257 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 55
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Kenya Great Rift Valley Escarpment Road
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 26 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 39 km
- Named road
- Kenya Great Rift Valley Escarpment Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Lake Elementaita
Lake Elementaita is the smallest and quietest of the three soda lakes, a shallow stretch of pale water in the Rift Valley that looks, in the right light, like a sheet of beaten silver. The name comes from a Maasai word, muteita, which means a place of dust, and the dry, windy shore bears it out. Behind the lake rises a ridge called the Sleeping Warrior, whose outline resembles a man lying on his back, and local people tell the tale of the sleeping giant with a straight face.
Read the complete Lake Elementaita write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lake Elementaita is where the day begins. Next is Lake Nakuru.
2. Lake Nakuru
The first thing you notice about Lake Nakuru is the smell, and the second is the pink. The lake sits in the floor of the Great Rift Valley about 1,760 metres above sea level with no outlet, so the water is soda-rich, alkaline and rank, and in a good year it is thick with blue-green algae that lesser flamingos feed on in the hundreds of thousands. From the ridge above the shoreline they look like a pink smudge across the grey water. In other years, when the water level changes, the birds move to Lake Bogoria or Elmenteita, which is why the trio of Rift Valley soda lakes is listed together as a World Heritage site.
Read the complete Lake Nakuru write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lake Nakuru comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lake Bogoria.
3. Lake Bogoria
Lake Bogoria lies at the bottom of the Rift Valley in central Kenya, a long, narrow, alkaline lake squeezed between a steep fault wall on the west and a flat, thorny plain on the east. Its water is so salty and caustic that fish cannot live in it, but blue-green algae thrive, and the algae feed one of the great wildlife spectacles of Africa: lesser flamingos in the hundreds of thousands, which line the shore and turn the margins pink. The numbers shift with the water level, and in some years they move to other lakes. Bogoria, Nakuru and Elmenteita make up the Kenya Lake System, listed by UNESCO in 2011.
Read the complete Lake Bogoria write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 127 km into the recorded legs you reach Lake Bogoria. Next is back through Lake Nakuru.
4. back through Lake Nakuru
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lake Nakuru write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Lake Nakuru, late in the day. Next is Lake Elementaita.
5. Lake Elementaita
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lake Elementaita write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Lake Elementaita. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Lake Elementaita to Lake Nakuru
Lake Elementaita → Lake Nakuru is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lake Nakuru to Lake Bogoria
Lake Nakuru → Lake Bogoria is 88 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Lake Bogoria to back through Lake Nakuru
Lake Bogoria → back through Lake Nakuru is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Lake Nakuru to Lake Elementaita
back through Lake Nakuru → Lake Elementaita is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.