Crater Lake Game Sanctuary

Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is a private reserve built around a small green soda lake sitting in an intact volcanic crater on the western side of Lake Naivasha. The lake is properly called Sonachi. The sanctuary is the quiet alternative to the lake’s better known walking site, and it is the only place on this shore where the walking is around a crater rim rather than across flat ground.

The Green Lake in the Crater

Sonachi is a small alkaline lake held in a crater with its walls still complete, immediately west of Lake Naivasha and a short drive from Naivasha town. Its colour is the reason people come and photograph it: the water shifts between deep blue and a vivid emerald green depending on the light and on how much algae is in it, and it can look like two different lakes in the same morning.

Unlike freshwater Naivasha next door, Sonachi is a soda lake, which is why flamingos turn up here and almost never on the big lake. Numbers are unpredictable and the lake is small, so this is a chance rather than a promise, but it is the nearest reliable soda water to a Naivasha bed.

The lake is held in regard by Maasai in the area, who consider its water to have healing properties for sick cattle. That is worth knowing when livestock appear at the water’s edge.

Walking the Rim

The walk is the sanctuary. A trail runs along the steep rim of the crater, giving the view down onto the green water on one side and out across the Naivasha basin on the other, with a descent to the lake shore for anyone who wants it. The crater is thickly wooded in yellow fever trees, which is what makes the walk feel different from the open ground at the lake’s other walking sites.

Black and white colobus are the animals visitors most want and most often get, moving through the fever tree canopy, with vervet monkey and olive baboon alongside them. On the ground there is plains game: giraffe, eland, bushbuck, Defassa waterbuck, Thomson’s gazelle, impala, warthog and dik dik among others, with buffalo present and hippo in the water.

This is not a predator free walking site in the way Crescent Island is, and buffalo are the specific reason walks here are guided. Take the guide and follow them, particularly in the wooded sections where sightlines are short.

The birding is good for a site this small, with well over a hundred species recorded around the crater, and the combination of woodland, crater rim and alkaline water in a few hundred metres is what produces the variety. Birdwatching in Kenya covers the Rift Valley circuit this sits in.

What a Visit Involves

Most people come for a morning or an afternoon. The rim circuit is a walk of an hour or two depending on route and pace, it is steeper than anything else around Lake Naivasha, and it is exposed on the upper sections. There is a tented camp on the property for anyone staying, and the sanctuary is used for quiet overnight stays as much as for day walking.

Practicalities are the usual ones for this altitude: closed shoes with grip for the descent, sun protection, water, and binoculars for the colobus, which are easier to hear than to see. Mornings are better for the animals and for the lake’s colour, and afternoons bring the wind that flattens the water and the light.

Getting There and What It Costs

The sanctuary is on the western side of Lake Naivasha in Nakuru County, roughly 10 kilometres from Naivasha town and about 90 kilometres from Nairobi, reached off the lakeshore road. Some visitors arrive by boat across Lake Naivasha and continue by vehicle, which is a pleasant way to do it and turns the trip into a full morning.

It is privately owned and managed, it charges its own admission at the gate, and that charge is entirely separate from anything paid for a boat, for a lodge or for a Kenya Wildlife Service park. Lake Naivasha is not a national park and has no gate of its own, which is the source of most of the confusion about paying here. No rate published by the sanctuary could be verified, so confirm the current charge directly with whoever is arranging the visit.

The natural pairing is with Crescent Island on the opposite shore, which offers the flat open walking this place does not, or with Hell’s Gate National Park a short drive south. Walking safaris in Kenya sets out where walking among wildlife is possible in the country and on what terms.

Questions Visitors Ask About Crater Lake Game Sanctuary

What is the lake in the crater called?

Sonachi. It is a small alkaline lake in an intact volcanic crater west of Lake Naivasha, and it is often referred to simply as Crater Lake, which is also the name of the sanctuary around it.

Why is the water green?

Algae in a shallow alkaline lake, and the colour changes with the light and with algal concentration through the day. The same alkalinity is why flamingos appear here and effectively never on freshwater Lake Naivasha next door.

Can you walk here without a guide?

Walks are guided, and the reason is buffalo rather than red tape. The crater is wooded, sightlines are short and buffalo are the animal responsible for most incidents on foot in this part of Kenya.

How does it compare with Crescent Island?

Crescent Island is flat, open, predator free and busier, and it is about walking among plains game. Crater Lake is wooded, hilly, quieter and has colobus, buffalo and a green soda lake. Doing both gives two genuinely different walks on one lake.

Will there be flamingos?

Sometimes. The lake is alkaline and does hold them, but it is small and numbers vary a great deal, so treat them as a bonus rather than the reason for the trip.

How long does a visit take?

A morning or an afternoon. The rim walk is an hour or two, and the drive from the Naivasha lakeshore is short. It is also a place people stay the night for the quiet rather than for the activities.

2 Places to Visit in This Area

Other sites in Lake Naivasha, each with its own guide.

Crescent Island Elsamere Conservation Centre

Safaris That Visit Lake Naivasha

3 of the 11 safaris listed here that visit Lake Naivasha, from different operators where the listings allow it. Each is sold and run by an independent tour company. This site lists them and passes on enquiries; it takes no booking and charges you nothing.

Great Migration