Earlier this year, there was a flash flood that killed several school children who were on a hike. Since then, the park re-opened and all visitors are required to have a guide. Our guide (formerly worked in the military and shared some stories about his missions around Africa). The gorge is gorgeous and since the water was a trickle, we were able to hike inside it. Although we signed up for a 4 hour hike, it ended up being around 6.5 hours instead. During my time here, I've learned that with time, it usually means double what the original time was said.
Most recently, the gorge was the set for Angelina Jolie's "Tomb Raider II" film. There were lots of birds, a huge grasshopper, and some monkeys that scampered around. The area is also home to geothermal activity and it was beautiful to see the sulfuric steam rising from the natural openings within the rocks. If you've visited the Grand Canyon, Hell's Gate is similar with the thousands of years of sedimentary rock forming the cliffs.
That night we got to camp early and made s'mores (which was nostalgic of the days as a "brownie" in girl-scouts). Due to the rainstorm in the late afternoon, we decided to opt for cots in the a cabin. The site is on the shores of a freshwater lake called "Lake Naivasha." That evening, we were told by the campsite managers that the hippos come onto land to graze and if we're lucky we would be able to spy them.
Before we turned in for the night, we walked around the camp site to see if we could find a hippo. Luck was on our side and we saw one note by 20 feet in front of us! It was kind of cool and unexpected to see that huge animal in full flesh out of the water!
The next morning, we rented a boat to take us to Crescent Island. On our way to the island, we asked the boat driver to take us around parts of the Lake to see hippos. Hippos are actually aggressive creatures who can tip boats and bite. According to the driver, there's about 2,000 hippos in the Lake. Hippos do not know how to swim and they use their feet to walk along the bottom in water. In addition to the many bird varieties, flocks of white pelicans, and herons, we saw a Giraffe taking a bath in the lake and the largest herd of hippos was 13 all together! It was a cool sight!
On Crescent island, the animals roam free and visitors hike around at their own pace on the island. There's a lot of animal droppings since visitors are the foreigners on the island. We saw herds of wildebeests, zebras, antelope, a water buffalo, and giraffes. This park was also the st for the famous movie, "Out of Africa."
Later on Sunday afternoon, we motor boated back to the camp grounds, had lunch, (stone-oven cooked pizza) and then we drove back to Nairobi.
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| Monkey |
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| Hell's Gate Gorge |
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| Giraffe Peering at me! |
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| Hungry hungry hippos! :) |
