Our second weekend, we decided to use our time to visit a couple incredible locations named Hell’s Gate and Lake Naivasha.
Hell’s Gate is a national park measuring 26 square miles within the Rift Valley. It contains all kinds of wildlife free to roam across the land including giraffes, wildebeest, warthogs, zebra, baboons, smaller monkeys, rock and tree hylax, and several species of gazelle. One of the most absolute amazing things we had the opportunity to experience while we were there was riding bikes 6 km from the entrance of the park to the entrance of the gorge through which we were ultimately going to hike, wade, and climb. It was an incredibly surreal experience to ride alongside all of the aforementioned animals and literally be within 20-40 feet of some of them while they were grazing in large herds without any fences or barriers between us. We were even able to ride right up to a watering hole where two giraffes were drinking as well as witness two zebras fighting over territory. When we finally reached the entrance of the gorge, we found small monkeys scurrying all across the rocks and trees that essentially behaved like the squirrels of West Lafayette in that they were rummaging for any trace of food and entirely unafraid of being in close proximity to humans. The hike that we took through the gorge was an absolute blast. It was so incredible how gaping parts of it were with the height of its walls dwarfing us in every single picture. All along its base, there were signs indicating flash flood warnings and emergency exits to the top, as we were told that the entire cavernous rift can fill extremely quickly with rushing water that has taken with it many visitors in the past. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the gorge was the amount of rugged climbing and scaling that was involved—with one part requiring taking our shoes off to scale the side of a wall before descending into a shallow area of water while other parts required us to essentially find our way farther along the gorge by ascending walls using whatever foot- and handholds we could find up semi-vertical walls. On our way back to the entrance of the park, we were fortunate enough to be nearing sunset, as the fading light was exploding against the foliage and cliffs causing them to glow brilliantly, which was a perfectly flawless ending to the day.
The next day, we took a short boat ride on Lake Naivasha, which measures 53 square miles, in the chilly morning air, during which we were greeted by a couple families of hippos, several crocodiles, and a variety of colorful and unique birds as well as several animals grazing along the coast such as giraffe, waterbuck, camels, warthogs, and gazelle.
We have definitely been blessed with wonderful weekend experiences thus far, and I expect that Kenya will continue to amaze us moving forward!
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