Crater Lake #2: Rim Viewpoint
To reach the cache:
Follow Moi South Lake Road to the end of the tar at Kongoni Village and continue approx. 4km along the dusty dirt road to S00 47.200 E036 15.158 where you turn off to the right to enter the Crater Lake Game Sanctuary.. After completing the brief entry formalities proceed to the main Camp parking area at S00 47.020 E036 15.497 close to the location of Crater Lake Cache #1. From here you can pick up the start of the crater rim trail (heading clockwise) to take you to the cache location.
Alternative (will save you 200m walk in each direction): after completing activities at the Camp, drive from the parking area out of the Camp gate along the dirt road heading further north. After just over 200m turn right at the sign indicating View Point and proceed a short distance up the rough track to S00 46.937 E036 15.482 where you can park.
Walk further up the rocky track to S00 46.932 E036 15.512 then head left here another 30m or so towards the cache location with the crater rim and great view a few metres beyond.
The cache, a small screw-topped tablet pot is hidden on the rock/under the rock. Take care when replacing not to squash it!
Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is a small (10,000 acre) private sanctuary centred around a secluded beautiful green soda lake at the bottom of an extinct volcanic crater on the western side of Lake Naivasha. See gallery photo for entry fees.
The crater is 87 hectares and the lake occupies 12-15 hectares of this, depending on water levels, with an average depth of 4-5m (Max: 8m). It is highly alkaline and cannot support fish but only Spirulina algae that the flamingos feed on. The local Maasai believe the lake water helps soothe ailing cattle.
The Sanctuary is can be explored on foot independently or with a local guide and numerous nature trails lead through the vegetation around the lake and along the steep but diminutive crater rim with great views down to the lake or across the plains to distant mountains.
The area abounds with wildlife including over 170 (some sources quote a figure of 400!) species of birds including Greater and Lesser Flamingo, Little Grebe, Cape Teal, Ruff, Great White Pelican, Whiskered Tern, Marabou Stork, Grey and Black-headed Heron, African Fish Eagle, Yellow-billed Stork, Pied Avocet, Egyptian Goose, Augur Buzzard, Hadeda Ibis, Babblers, Robin Chats, Long-tailed Paradise Flycatcher, Yellow-vented Bulbul, and Speckled Mousebird to name a few of the more commonly seen.
The lake from time to time (depending on the water levels of other rift valley lakes) may attract many flamingo (numbers can reach 3-4,000 covering most of the lake!), and the surrounding forests and plains have plenty of mammals – some 30 species including impala, Thompson’s gazelle, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, eland, warthog and baboon, which we saw during our brief visit. The crater is also home to a troop of over 70 spectacular black and white long-tailed Colobus monkeys.
The Sanctuary also houses the famous hilltop grave where Happy Valley's tragic heroine, Lady Diana Delamere, is buried with her last two husbands, Gilbert Colvile and Thomas Delamere. See here for fascinating information on this hedonistic and decadent expatriate community which flourished from the 1920s-1940s for whom Naivasha was one of its favourite hang outs.
Lastly from multiple web sources . . . ‘for the truly intrepid, there are the mysterious 'Caves of God' in the golden wheat fields of Ndabibi, reputed to be an inspiration for H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain . . .’ Ndabibi is about 10km ENE of Crater Lake. I haven’t been able to find out anything about the caves so they will remain mysterious!