Hell's Gate

I can tell we've been in Kenya for a while now from how annoyed we were that we had to pay 350 shillings instead of 250 for an hour and 1/4 long shuttle ride. A difference of $1.25 Canadian... what can I say, Kenya's cheap and we've become sticklers.

We took said shuttle Saturday around noon - myself, Milanne, Debra, Justine, and Katie - and headed to the town of Naivasha. The main attraction there is Hell's Gate National Park, which we visited Sunday. Once we arrived in Navaisha, we hopped in a matatu to Fisherman's Camp. But being 5 women travelling together, we scoped out 3 potential accommodations in the same area before deciding on our initial choice. Again, the decision came down to a 100 shilling difference that we wouldn't agree on with the man at one of the campsites.

The 5 of us got 2 tents, luckily one of them was already pitched and the campsite had someone to put up the second one for us. Yessss. Leisure camping I'd call it. It was so refreshing to be in this area. There was so much green and shade and the campsite was right on a lake. At night, the hippos in the lake come out to feed on the grass, so there is an electric fence to keep them away because they can be quite dangerous. Six months ago, there was one hippo that kept going through the fence so they had to shoot it. It's skull sits at the edge of the water with a couple others... perhaps a warning to any other hippos who dare challenge the electric fence?

We spent the evening in the restaurant on the shore. We had a great spot on an open porch with a view of the dock. We had some drinks and ate dinner while we waited for the hippos to ascend from the water. Around 8:30, a momma and baby hippo crossed the lawn, but unfortunately that was the extent of our hippo sightings. We were exhausted and couldn't stay up any longer, so we headed to bed. Our tents had foam mattresses and a blanket for each of us, which we thought would be enough to keep us warm... but it wasn't. Milanne and I didn't bother to even bring a sweater, so we were plastered together trying to stay warm all night. It was rough but we managed to get some sleep, between the loud music and talking from the campers next to us who were still awake when we got up in the morning at 6:30.

After a good buffet breakfast at the neighbouring hotel's restaurant, we rented some bikes and headed on our way by 8am. It was 7kms to the entrance of the park - the first 5 were on paved road, but the last 2 were on a horrible, dusty dirt road that was just inclined enough to make us want to turn around. Once we got into the park, the road was much better, though very bumpy. We rode 8kms to the entrance to Hell's Gate Gorge. The ride was amazing. There were huge, orange rock cliffs all around us. There were several types of animals grazing at that time. We saw warthogs and gazelle, then a herd of zebras, then more warthogs and gazelle and some water buffalo. Then we came across two giraffes right by the road. We were more than 20 feet away from them. It was amazing. Giraffes are definitely at the top of my favourite animals list so this was pretty damn awesome.

Once we got to the gorge, we added 3 more people to our group to make the price for the guide cheaper. The guide was a long and lanky local who was deceivingly strong. He often helped us up and down parts of the gorge. At one point, I thought he had dislocated my arm. We navigated between rock walls, slid down from one shelf to another, hopped over running water, and climbed up tree branches posing as ladders. We saw "Hell's Bedroom" which was a filming spot for a scene of Tomb Raider. The walls of the gorge loomed over us in the bedroom. This is where our guide explained to us that the park got it's name because so many people died during a volcanic eruption from the volcano under the gorge.

We kept on hiking and headed for the main part of the gorge where there was a lot of hot springs. Scattered throughout the gorge, there were mini waterfalls of hot water and the rocks were stained green underneath. Some of the girls washed their hair and faces in the warm water. It left a smooth feeling on my hands and our guide said the water was very beneficial for the skin. He also pointed out some small puddles of steaming water from the springs. Apparently some people will use these spots to boil eggs.

At one point during the trek, our guide stopped and pulled us all up onto the side of the gorge and led us on an exhaustive and somewhat terrifying walk/climb up the gorge wall to a viewpoint. We could see for miles over the gorge. It was a beautiful spot and we sat there to catch our breath and snapped some photos. The trek wrapped up with a walk down a road back to the gorge entrance. We took a snack break before getting back on our bikes. At this points, our butts were already bruised from the first half of the bike ride. This made getting back on the bikes a lot more difficult... and incredibly painful. Not more than 5 minutes into our ride, Deb and Milanne hitched a ride in a ranger vehicle to the gate. The rest of us were chugging along when they passed us from behind in the back of the truck. So we kept going, struggling with not just the pain in our asses, but the heat that got much worse now that we were at noon-hour.

The only thing that eased the pain during the ride was seeing the people just heading toward the gorge. They were only part-way in and already dripping in sweat. Once we reached the entrance gate, it was a lot better ride. The initial road that tortured us on our way in was a fun and easy ride to the highway. Except for the many small speed-bumps that jiggled and jolted every part of my body and didn't help with the bum problem either.

We made it back by 1:30pm to find Deb and Milanne back at our table from the night before. I laughed at Milanne's reaction when she saw us because they were surprised at how quickly we made it back. They seemed a bit nervous that we would be mad at them for ditching, but instead we took advantage and gloated a little bit for actually having finished to whole 30kms. (To Deb's credit, this was her second time around. So I guess that makes Milanne the biggest slacker).

After some relaxation at the restaurant and a much deserved Fanta, we gathered our things and headed back to Naivasha. We were told there weren't any shuttles so we had to take a matatu back to Nairobi. I took the window seat in the last row and was soon joined by a local man. He sat there quietly with his black plastic bag, until he decided it was show and tell. He reached in his bag and pulled out one of the many small fish he had with him. I was looking out the window but turned my head toward him when my nose caught the smell. The others turned around after hearing me yell, "Eww! Put that away!" I got a pity look from Justine but was left to deal with fish man all by myself. I was just happy I could breathe out the window and not be stuck with that smell.

I'm not sure what this man thought my reaction meant, but he was persistent. He told me I should let him listen to my music, but I said no. He asked me my name, and I pretended I couldn't hear him through my earphones. (Please note how extremely tired and exhausted I was at this point and was in no way in a mood to socialize. Especially with someone who just waved a dead fish in my face.) When I was shuffling through my bag for something, he noticed the muffins I had in my bag and told me I should give him one. I was about to tell him to screw off when I considered the fact that I hated those muffins and that's why they were still in my bag. Reluctantly, I handed them over. This kept him quiet for a good little while as I sat there hoping he wasn't riding with me all the way to Nairobi. Fortunately he got off about 20kms outside of Nairobi. Before he got off, he asked me what the tube was coming out of my backpack. I told him it was attached to a pouch of water inside my bag and was getting ready for him to tell me I should give him a sip of water as well... surprisingly he didn't.