Hell’s Gate

Back from a long weekend adventure with Jon, Leigh and Trever to Lake Navasha / Hell’s Gate. On Saturday we woke at sunrise and cycled from Fisherman’s Camp where we stayed to the park, along rolling hills past huge intensive covered flower farms. It was roughly 12km to the park and we entered through Ol Karia gate where there is an expansive network of geothermal wells and pipework, supposedly providing 25% of Kenya’s power. Geysers are everywhere, sending rockets of steam into the sky. It was very dramatic on a misty, slightly chilly morning. You could see some of the local environmental impacts: smells of sulphur and reservoirs of blue-tinted water. 

As I was cycling along with Jon, a giraffe suddenly leaped out just in front of us. It ran in front of us for a while before crossing to the other side of the road to  It an incredible moment.

We eventually came to the Lower Gorge, hopped off our bikes and hired a guide who took us down into the beautiful gorge for two hours. This is the main attraction of the park and you walk between magnificent cliffs, scramble over rocks and feel the hot and cold water springs that seep through the rocks. Up in the cliffs are small caves where baboons sleep, but we didn’t see any this time. Our guide excitedly told us that this was the spot Tomb Raider II was filmed. We finished the hike with a short climb to an incredible view point where we could see the Central Tower rising out of the valley. 

As we cycled out of the park, we passed the usual collections of zebras, bucks and gazelles, and passed Fischer’s Tower, a 75ft rocky tower, another the high volcanic plug. For Maasai community, the tower is a Maasai girl which has be turned to stone after disobeying the family before her wedding. We were too tired and hungry to climb it, and we peddled on, leaving the park through Elsa Gate and cycling back to the camp. 

In the afternoon we headed to Crater Lake via a smaller nearby lake where there were thousands of flamingos. We had a pleasant walk through the park, getting a little lost before finding the lake. We saw many Colobus monkeys in the trees and various grazing animals. No Rhinos, however being on foot, it was probably for the best.

In the evening we made a camp fire and celebrated the remaining hours of Trever’s birthday. It had been a long day and we were all pretty tired.

Pictures coming in the next blog post.