Kijabe Trip 2012: Weekend One: Hell's Gate and Lake Naivasha

Alright, so the first weekend rolled around and we decided that it was time to finally see some authentic African wildlife. Dr. Newton gave us the contact info for a daily driver, but the quoted rate was way above what we had been told to expect. I suppose we could have negotiated that rate down, but we were at a tactical disadvantage since we are so unfamiliar with how things normally work (and what they normally cost). Joe called a different driver (Phillip), whom we had just met, and got happy news. Not only was the fare significantly less, but Phillip knew a great place for us to get roasted goat for lunch. He arrived at our house at 7am, and we left Kijabe, driving down a challenging road to the valley below.

A view along the road down to the Valley.

At the bottom of the descent, the road from Kijabe meets the main road running from Nairobi to Uganda, the so-called "HIV-highway". There is a small town near the road from Kijabe called Mai Mahiu that is a major truck stop along the highway, but with the local growth seen from the trucks, there has also been a boom in prostitution.

I took this picture at a gas station: Buyer Beware.

After filling up, we continued on our way to Hell's Gate. There were plenty of things to see along the way: the stunning vistas of Mt. Longonot, refugee camps from the 2007 elections, and (of course) crazy truck drivers nearly causing plenty of what would have been fatal accidents.

I've got an idea: I'll pass this guy even though I'm towing a gigantic tank!

We also passed a ton of greenhouses near lake Naivasha on the way to Hell's Gate. These are the growthplaces for large multinational flower corporations that ship across the world (though mostly to Europe). The work in the greenhouses is hard labor, and the local workers earn roughly 200 shillings/day (a little more than $2 US). On arriving to Hell's Gate, we paid an entrance fee, and drove into the park. We quickly found warthogs, zebra, and Grand gazelle.

Solo warthog and a few zebra.

As we continued on into the park, we saw many more gazelle and antelope, as well as dozens of guinea fowl scurrying about the road. There were some stunning rock formations along the way, and we eventually arrived at the entrance to the gorge for a nice, leisurely hike.

One of the rock towers in Hell's Gate.

Thankfully, Phillip was also able to act as our guide for the hike in Hell's Gate (you definitely need one as it would be easy to get lost). He warned us that it would be a bit of a challenging hike, but I think we underestimated what that meant. In reality, the hike is not along a trail so much as a stream that carves it's way through a steep canyon. If it had been raining, the path would have been impassable.

Phillip negotiating our "trail"

Our first destination on the hike was the Devil's Bedroom, an open area carved from the rock that is normally dark, but which was quite illuminated by the morning sun. The canyon leading back to the Bedroom has some pretty vigorous rock-climbing involved, and at least one open area in the rock that appears to be used as a large open-air bathroom by the baboons. Awesome.

And me without my carabiners...

In the Devil's Bedroom.

After leaving the Bedroom, we headed downstream to some hotsprings bubbling out of the rock, and the water level started to pick up a bit. The hotsprings themselves would make for an uncomfortably crispy shower for you, but a deep green algae seemed to like it, and grew in abundance wherever the springs were found.

Joe was treated for 3rd degree burns to the hand and forearm. A full recovery is expected.

As the water picked up, it became a little trickier to shimmy down the steep, slick rocks of our trail, and we each had to take turns at the more difficult places.

That's me on the upper-right corner. This was basically a sheer rock wall we had to descend.

We eventually reached an exit point for the gorge (if it could really be called that since it, too, looked just like a rock wall), and we climbed up to an area overlooking the rest of Hell's Gate.

Success!

Right after leaving the overlook, a group of Masai women were selling various items to tourists like ourselves. Joe got a good deal on a club and a short spear ($10 for both, as negotiated by Phillip). We then got some shots of him posing with his new weapons in from of the sleep huts the women had built. It seems incredible, but they do apparently sleep on that bundle of sticks in the hut. One of the most striking things I saw (but didn't get to photograph), was a newborn baby wrapped in cloth and set under a tree to shade it from the mid-day sun. It's a very harsh, dusty and hot place for a baby to be sleeping on the ground, but this is life for many of the people in the area.

Ready for Survivor: Kenya

We walked back to the car and drove out of Hell's Gate and towards lunch. Phillip had a great spot picked out, and we enjoyed a few Tuskers (the Kenyan Brand Lager) and then a large meal of goat and cornmeal (basically polenta) in the shade of the hotel (a hotel is a place for food, and a restaurant is for both food and lodging in Kenya).

Tusker. All African countries apparently have a national beer.

Ann our waitress took this, but it could have just as easily been taken by one of the

local domestic animals that wandered by to make sure our meal was satisfactory.

Before.

...and after. Total devastation.

After leaving the hotel, we drove a short ways to the entrance to Crescent Island, which is actually now a peninsula thanks to lower water levels in Lake Naivasha (possibly due to the use of the lake as a source of irrigation for the myriad of flower greenhouses in the area as mentioned before).

Aaaaaand another gate fee.

Thankfully, the money for entrance quickly paid off, as we saw a bunch of wildlife on the drive back to the entrance to Crescent Island. We were first greeted by roadside giraffes (or highcows, as I prefer to call them).

They see me strollin. They hatin.

Showing their good side, to boot.

Start spreading the gnus....

We even stopped at one point to walk out to a group of highcows in the forest. Per Phillip's advice, we were able to get pretty close to them (one older one in particular) by using what he called "psychology". I assumed this meant something similar to what works for the Hippogryph in the Harry Potter series, so I made several polite bows on my way to the highcows. You can judge my success for yourself:

No zoom was used in this shot. In retrospect, this particular

highcow may have been to old to run, anyways.

A shot of Phillips wheels coming back from the highcows. We'll see if we can't

convince him to put some spinners and ground effects in before we leave.

We eventually arrived on Crescent Island and walked up an incredibly gorgeous house on the peak of the island. It was surrounded by flowers and vibrantly-colored birds. We were greeted by an older British woman who lives on the peninsula with her husband and allows visitors to take walking safaris of the area for a price.

Joe planning his own British Estate in the heart of Kenyan wildflower country.

We took a couple of fun pictures on the porch and paid a reduced entrance fee for a walking safari. Apparently our discounted rate was thanks for one of the Kijabe doctors having saved the life of a safari tourguide that had been attacked by a hippo on the island a few years before. Interesting fact: the movie "Out of Africa" was largely filmed on the Island.

Stage 1 of the entrance fee negotiations... Things are not going well.

Success!... The British lady didn't know what hit her.

...possibly the glare from my legs.

We then began our long walk across the Island. It's amazing how close you could get to some of the animals, and Phillip and Bernard (our Island guide) kept us out of trouble. Here's some of the shots we got on the walking safari...

The guidepost. Despite the fact that everyone here has been incredibly nice, scenes like this

make it hard to shake the feeling that you might be being led to slaughter at any moment.

Lake Naivasha from the crest of the island.

That's a Water Buffalo under the tree. Apparently we were "dangerously close"

to this rogue, lone male. I submit that he was dangerously close to me.

Party up front, herds of grazing ungulates in the back.

Waterbuck shufflin'. They do this everyday.

Anteater den. Could a honey badger be lurking?...

...apparently so.

The showdown.We got way more pictures of giraffe than I could ever post here.

Blending in.

Shortly after this picture, we each saddled a zebra for a jousting tournament.

We are expected to make a full recovery.

Feral sheep. You think these are peaceful creatures, but note all the bones on the ground.

We left crescent island and stopped at a grocery store on the long drive back to Kijabe. It's nice to have a guide like Phillip even at the grocery store, but this one was a lot nicer than the one we stopped at in Nairobi.