On 20/02 Paul and I were heading to Hell’s Gate National Park.  After breakfast we made our way to the national park gates on foot, we were only 10 or 15 minutes away!

En route we had some fun with Naivasha's nice locals who, seeing our tribal wristbands asked us of our origins… I proudly claimed to be a Samburu, and Paul was a Turkana (we both bought our tribal jewellery in northern Kenya).   They laughed their heads off at us!We noticed that the park gate we were to enter was called Elsa Gate!  Joy Adamson, the author of Born Free, lived on the shores of Lake Naivasha in the mid-1960s… the lion in that story gives the gate its name! We walked down a dirt road, and arrived at the park office to pay our entrance fees! Hell's Gate National Park lies south of Lake Naivasha.  It was established in 1984, and is famous for it geological formations.  The park is also known for its wide variety of wildlife, including a few lions, leopards, and cheetahs.  More prominent however are African buffalo,zebra, eland, hartebeest, Thomson’s gazelle, baboons, hyraxes, and warthogs!  Covering an area of nearly 69 square kilometres (small by African standards) the national park resides in an area with warm, dry climate!  Interestingly, the main setting of the 1994 film, The Lion Kingwas heavily modelled after the park.

Olkaria and Hobley's, two extinct volcanoes located in the park, are prominent features!  In the early 1900s, Mount Longonot erupted, and ash can still be felt around Hell's Gate.  The Olkaria geothermal station (the first of its kind in Africa) was established in 1981 and generates geothermal power underneath Hell's Gate from the area's many hot springs and geysers.

At the gates Paul and I decided to hire bicycles, Hell’s gate being one of very few national parks where one can cycle around freely among the animals!  The big cats are rarely seen, so didn’t pose a threat to humans (that's how we understood it)!  We spent a while picking out a couple of bikes that actually had everything intact.

With mountain bikes as our transportation, we headed off in search of the animals.  The scenery around us was stunning, but we only saw boring animals like zebra, gazelles, impalas, and warthogs!  Regardless it was nice be cycling around in their presence. We cycled for some time, and at one point we passed the volcanic plug known as Fischer's Tower. When we reached the southern end of the park, where the park ended and Ol Njorowa Gorge began, we had a break with cold drinks.  We chatted to the members of the Olkarian community who offered us a tour of the gorge. We paid an additional guide fee, and headed off into the gorge, on foot!  The gorge was a magnificent place with areas within it having names like Hell’s Bedroom, the Devil’s Shower, and Hell’s Kitchen… all attributed to the volcanic eruption that killed many locals a century ago!  It was a steamy place wherever there was water... and lots of sulphur too!  We had to negotiate a few tricky areas when hiking through it. We ended our hike with a climb up to a viewpoint overlooking the gorge, and the surrounding area. Gorge walk over, we had another little rest before getting back on our hired bikes!  We encountered a number of very angry warthogs on the road, every time we happened to (not on purpose) get between the dominant male and his family! We managed to stay away from the watrhogs' aggressive displays… and soon took the Buffalo Circuit, which was an uphill slog on very rough surface!  We did get views over Lake Naivasha, and nearby Olkaria’s Geothermal Project, adjacent to the park. Cycling becme very tiring, and more chore-like than enjoyble.  I decided that we should head back down and follow the route we had already cycled.  Paul however wanted to soldier on, so I left him up there, about 3km uphill. I zoomed down, narrowly avoiding several possible incidents of flying off my seat!  Back on the main dirt road, I gave my bum a rest from the bumps, and walked with my cycle, taking in more of the same animals!  If a zebra wasn’t being chased and eaten by a lion I wasn’t interested in seeing another one after this!  They were everywhere… as were those angry warthogs!  I aso got to see lots of buffalo, wild turkeys, and impalas. As I neared the park gates I saw a sign at the other end of Buffalo circuit, it read "14km"... and I got a little worried for Paul.  When I handed over my bike at the gates, I told every park warden I could find of Paul’s whereabouts… in case he didn’t return!  It was already late, and the park was closing in less than an hour.  As I walked back to our camp I called Paul over and over again, but couldn’t get through.  Thankfully, I eventually got through, and learnt that he was OK and on his way back.  When Paul returned, we had a beer and ordered steak for dinner... it had been a bit of a physical day!

Apparently if you live in Europe, and are lucky enough to receive flowers from someone, there is a good chance that they were grown in Kenya... in one of the greenhouses that reside on the shores of Lake Naivasha.  Over 25% of Europe's cut flowers come from Kenya!

After a tentative start in the 1980s the industry is now Kenya's third-largest foreign-currency earner, bringing in $120m a year.  The flower business is a lucrative one, worth more than $2.25 billion a year in sales in the UK alone, and Kenya is one of the world's largest exporters of cut stems.  

Apparently the real money is in red roses!  The Lake Naivasha Growers' Group, an alliance of owners, says Valentine's Day accounts for one-third of their annual production.  During the Valentine’s period Oserian (one of the largest farms) sells over 6 million roses per week.  Kenya emerged as a flower power when Israel scaled down its own industry.  It has since lost business to neighbouring Ethiopia, which offers tax breaks and better security, but Naivasha's perfect intensity of sunlight and days of near-constant length is said to keep Kenya on top!

One of the first things I noticed on the shores of Lake Naivasha (where we were staying) were the vast greenhouses that lined the streets.

The more we walked around the area, the more of these giant structures we saw!  They were everywhere!

 

On 19/02 Paul and I finally escaped from our binge-drinking nights in Nakuru!  As usual we were hungover again that morning!  Paul knocked on my door and woke me up!  We checked out from our hotel, had breakfast and walked to the matatu station!  We both felt it was time to leave Nakuru… although we met some very nice people, we lost too many days to drinking!   

At the matatu station a man escorted us to a minivan heading for Naivasha!  We paid our fares and sat ourselves down!  Then commenced possibly the most excruciatingly painful few hours we had experienced in a while.  It was a Sunday, and there were few passengers!  Matatus don’t leave until they’re full.  We had to wait for hours for the van to fill its 14 seats... and our massive hangovers did nothing to ease the pain!  To top things up, we had a constant barrage of pestering walking salesmen asking us to buy crap off of them!  It was torture!

The matatu did leave, eventually, and the drive from Nakuru to Naivasha was fairly short!  We were dropped off at Naivasha, which looked like a very well-groomed town.

We decided to head straight for the lakeshore so that we could be in walking distance from the national park we intended on visiting (more on that later).  We met a taxi driver called Samuel, who drove us around to a few places before we settled on a place called Crayfish Camp… for accommodation Naivasha was the most expensive place I had stepped foot in for some time!   Having checked in, the very first thing we noticed were the room names… they were for some strange reason named after all manner of fashion-related terms.  My room had possibly the worst name of them all… skin tight!

And the comedy didn’t just stop there.  Then there were they key rings!  They resembled things that could easily be mistaken for oversized sex toys!  Oh, how we laughed! Paul and I settled for a late lunch and a beer at our hotel's bar… both crap and expensive!   Having had such a painful day we had an early night (Nakuru nights had definitely taken their toll on us)... I was in bed by 8pm!

When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible.  They taught how to pray with our eyes closed.  When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible | Jomo Kenyatta (founding father of Kenya who served as the first Prime Minister and President)

 

18/02, my last day in Nakuru!  We were up late once again!  I checked out of the rubbish hotel we were staying in, and moved to a place called Luxury Suits (far from luxurious, but quieter).  My travel-buddy Paul headed off to help with some IT issues at New Life Africa International (the place where Rikke was volunteering) and I walked around in Nakuru looking for a new pair of combat trousers... and bumped into Jenny in process (another volunteer from Ireland), we shopped together for a few hours!  

I was supposed to meet Rikke and Paul for lunch after they had solved New Life's technical issues, but there was no sign of them!  Paul was on amad mission to free all the computers of viruses!  So I met up with Jenny at Guava Lounge and settled down with a few beers!  Rikke and Paul eventually arrived at 4.30pm… for lunch!  Rikke if you're reading, you still owe me some drinks for being late!  Before long Ben (the owner of the bar) arrived and we headed off to Lake Elmenteita for dinner!

Lake Elmenteita is a soda lake in the Great Rift Valley.  The name Elmenteita is derived from a Masai word, apparently referencing to the arid, dusty nature of the area.    

At the southern end of the lake lie the "Kekopey" hot springs, popular for bathing, and the local Masai claim that it can cure AIDS… I’m not sure about that one!  Elmenteita is located between Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru with the town of Gilgil located nearby.       

The Lake Elmenteita area saw its first white settlement when Lord Delamere (1879-1931) established Soysambu, a 48,000 acre ranch, on the western side of the lake.  Soysambu ranch is still occupied by Lord Delamere's descendants, covering two-thirds of the shoreline.  It is said to be home to over 12,000 wild animals.  Zebra, gazelle, eland, and warthog graze the lake’s shores.  Over 400 bird species have been recorded in theLake Nakuru-Lake Elmenteita basin.  Elmenteita attracts visiting flamingos too!

Ben dorve us to a nice lodge on the shores of the lake... it had lovely views!

We ordered dinner… I had steak and a few glasses of red wine! 

Ben drove us back to Nakuru… and we ended up at Guava Restaurant for a few more drinks!  We met with Marlis and Luna there, and unsurprisingly ended up back at the Guava Lounge for yet another boozy Nakuru night!  I was drunk enough to embarrass myself that night, but somehow in a positive way!