With family spanning almost every administrative ward since the 1950s, Nakuru is naturally my second home. It’s a place that I’ve visited more times than I can remember, making beautiful memories filled with smiles from family and friends. As it came up on the Onetouch calendar last April, I knew it would be a challenge to find something new to shoot there, but still booked my seat in Shani’s Forester for the ride to Nakuru.

We decided to take the scenic route there and not the straight dash on the A104. We went through Ruaka, Banana and Nazareth, and immediately started enjoying new discoveries as we approached Limuru.

Past Limuru, we took the B3 through Mai Mahiu and C88 towards Longonot, where we picked a spot by the side of the highway and clicked away as trucks, buses and small cars whizzed by.

As the rain clouds that had hid the sun from us for a couple of hours gave way to rain, I decided to test my GoPro abilities. I felt very satisfied after this shot.

We got to Nakuru late and drove on to Njoro where we camped in the rain at Kembu.

The following morning after breakfast, we decided to head up Menengai Crater where we witnessed KenGen’s geothermal activities from afar.

Further beyond the reach of the naked eye, we saw a water body that interested us. We asked a guide who was at the crater about it. He told us it was Lake Solai, and even told us how to get there. We needed to take the B5 towards Nyahururu and branch off at Maili Kumi. We were then to proceed on the gravel road until we got to the shores.

Before he started selling us soapstone artifacts, we’d zoomed off in a cloud of volcanic dust, knowing that time wasn’t on our side.

We doofed through pools of water, danced in the mud and eventually got to Lake Solai at about 5pm. We immediately rejoiced at this new discovery.

Lake Solai with the Subukia Escarpment in the background.

We left Lake Solai happy that we’d discovered a beautiful lake in what had started off as a trip to a town we were all familiar with.