With transport and 15 minutes to play with, you can be out of the grimy streets of Nakuru and standing on the rim of Menengai Crater, a 485m-high natural cauldron and local beauty spot. Outside of weekends, it's a peaceful place that affords striking views down below onto a cushion of lush vegetation. The crater was formed over one million years ago and the last eruption was about 350 years ago.
Geothermal excavation is now taking place on the crater floor, so it's hard to tell if those plumes of steam rising from the bottom are indeed the souls – as the story goes – of defeated Maasai warriors, or swirling clouds of dust. On the crater’s western side is the Mau Mau Cave, where guerrillas hid from British colonial forces during the Mau Mau uprising.
If you want to take on the Menengai Crater on foot, we recommend taking a guide. James Maina is a good local guide and can take you down into the crater and back up again (a four-hour round trip) or to the Mau Mau Cave. It's an isolated 6km walk from the main gate; hikers should never make the climb alone.
You can, at least in theory, camp atop the crater for KSh700 per person. There’s a small group of dukas (shops) at the main viewpoint selling drinks and trinkets.
A motorbike taxi from town to the top of the crater should cost around KSh800.
