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- …In Hell’s Gate National Park, that is! On the evening of the 18th Stella, Liz and I boarded the bus for Kenya. We reached the Busia boarder just before midnight and after the (expected) tedious procedure of getting our visas we continued on our way. I have no idea what time we rolled into Naivasha because my phone and iPod were dead. After getting on and off various taxis we made it to our campsite, Fisherman’s Camp, at Lake Naivasha. We picked our campsite and were off to Hell’s Gate National Park, to begin our bike excursion.
The campsite is 5 Km from the park entrance along a paved road. The only annoying thing we encountered on the way to the gate was hundreds of kids shouting “muzungu, muzungu, muzungu!” I.hate.that.word. Anyway, we paid our fees and entered the park. Our plan was to follow the road to the gorge, stop wherever we wanted along the way, hike the gorge, and make it out of the park before it started to rain.
The park was pretty incredible and it felt amazing to be on a bike again, I totally slipped into my own little world. Our first stop was Fischer’s Tower, a little rock formation only 1 Km from the park gate. I hiked up it and spotted some hyrax! After a few minutes we continued on, and would stop sporadically to take pictures of various antelope, warthogs, zebra, giraffe, tons of birds, etc. The gorge is 7 Km from the gate, and the trail/road is pretty level with only a few slight inclines; needless to say it was an easy track.
Funny map at the park gate
View of Fischer’s Tower
Hyrax, licking his lips!
I like lichen!
Liz and Stella biking off into the park
Cute little bird
Warthog crossing
Wasp parasitism?
ZEHbras, clearly I need a better lens
Looking into the gorge
Liz eating Ox balls
Me and Liz hiking up one of the smaller falls
Me, Stella, and Liz after hiking in the gorge
Giraffe!
We arrived at the top of the gorge at some unknown time, paid another fee and acquired a guide who looked about 12 years old. We climbed into the gorge and hiked inside it – this was AWESOME – we had to climb up rock piles, down waterfalls, scale rock formations, I was seriously stoked. Even though our guide looked suspiciously young and was about half of my weight he helped the girls and myself climb up/down in a few sketchy areas.
On the way out of the gorge our guide instructed us to touch some of the water seeping out of the rocks, and when we did we were surprised because it was EXTREMELY hot. This is because of the lava under the rocks – neat! The bike ride out was scorching, and we were pretty desperate for water, but we made it out alive and totally uninjured from any animals ravaging our sweaty bodies! Hurray! Overall an incredible experience, something I would absolutely recommend to anyone that is traveling to Kenya.
After returning to our camp Liz crashed out and Stella and I moseyed around and planned some logistics for the rest of our trip. We stayed up until 9:30 and were pretty proud of that. I think I can safely say we all slept exceptionally soundly last night (even Liz after a 5 hour nap!).
We woke this morning from the dull sunshine penetrating our tent, and after packing our bags we hit the road again. I have no clue what time we made it to Nairobi but we just ended up ambling around for several hours before taking a taxi to Carnivore. Now we can say we have eaten at both the Carnivore restaurants in the world – RAD! People usually seem curious when I tell them about this, since I am a vegetarian, but they have an herbivore menu. 🙂
Kisses from Kenya, off to Turkey! (NBO wireless is being ghetto, I will update more photos later!)
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Chopsticks and Chaos in Landlocked Lao 
I’d have given my right arm (or maybe my left one!) to have been able to photograph all those animals you saw. I can’t wait ’til you post some of your photos! You’re living a life that few other people will ever have the chance to live! Joan
Comment by Joan Zobel April 21, 2013 @ 3:16 amsounds like an amazing day/s. be safe. koyh mom
Comment by dianne demko April 21, 2013 @ 3:28 ammuzungu?? whitey? or some such thing computer is working again you know you dont have to keep stuff seecret from mom and i and we can keep secrets too! caesar called me maria’s mom died so he was on his way to AK where she lived sadly i go back to work tomorrow chel and luke may comedown next weekend and maybe we will go to an admas state baseball game
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Comment by Greg Demko April 22, 2013 @ 1:05 am