Hell's Gate is found northwest of Kenya. It is a small National Park, with a variety of animals and landscapes. I spent a half a day there with a group on an "active" safari, meaning that we biked and walked our way through the park. On a paved surface, it would have been a beautiful ride, as it was, we struggled over gravel, chunks of obsidian left over from ancient eruptions, and fluvial outwash from a prehistoric river. The bike ride there was lovely, but the bike ride back left me wondering what the heck I am thinking (re: biking across Europe). This might be more pain than I'm interested in.
We were assured that the big cats are rarely seen in this area, which was less reassuring than you would think. Chances are my biking abilities would not save me from a hungry lion, no matter how rare.
The landscape was fairly flat, thankfully, but flanked by dramatic rock outcrops. . . red volcanic cliffs and currently inactive plugs. There were some rock climbers taking advantage of these formations. Looked like fun :)
As this was my first big foray out into Africa, I got overly excited. It's funny to look back at your photographs, and see how at first you'd take a picture of a zebra so far away that it really only looks like a spec, and then further along the road, you realize that they come close enough to nearly touch. Suffice to say, I exhausted my memory card this day, and needed to do some heavy photo editing work back at Diana's.
Throughout the bike ride we saw zebras, warthogs, Thomson's Gazelles, giraffes, and monkeys. It's so amazing to be so close to such grand animals. Charismatic megafauna, that they are. There were also some birds that were in the midst of constructing some awesome nests, remniscent of Eero Arnio's Globe Chair.
We lunched above the Hell's Gate gorge, keeping an eye out for cheeky baboons. It was a fun group of people, many working for NGO's in Kenya. Amongst us were Kenyans, an American, a couple Germans, and me.
Then, deciding we had enough energy to add it into our day's plans, we took a quick walk down into the gorge, exploring the different canyons and feeling hot spring water, and cold spring waterfalls. The signs about flash floods, and the fact that this is Kenya's rainy season was a little worrying, but the strata of the canyon walls (carved by said water) were enough to distract me from this one small fact. This gorge is the result of a prehistoric tributary that fed into a lake in the Great Rift Valley, feeding early humans and animals alike.
And finally back to the start, for a drink and a rest in the shade.
We were assured that the big cats are rarely seen in this area, which was less reassuring than you would think. Chances are my biking abilities would not save me from a hungry lion, no matter how rare.
The landscape was fairly flat, thankfully, but flanked by dramatic rock outcrops. . . red volcanic cliffs and currently inactive plugs. There were some rock climbers taking advantage of these formations. Looked like fun :)
As this was my first big foray out into Africa, I got overly excited. It's funny to look back at your photographs, and see how at first you'd take a picture of a zebra so far away that it really only looks like a spec, and then further along the road, you realize that they come close enough to nearly touch. Suffice to say, I exhausted my memory card this day, and needed to do some heavy photo editing work back at Diana's.
Throughout the bike ride we saw zebras, warthogs, Thomson's Gazelles, giraffes, and monkeys. It's so amazing to be so close to such grand animals. Charismatic megafauna, that they are. There were also some birds that were in the midst of constructing some awesome nests, remniscent of Eero Arnio's Globe Chair.
We lunched above the Hell's Gate gorge, keeping an eye out for cheeky baboons. It was a fun group of people, many working for NGO's in Kenya. Amongst us were Kenyans, an American, a couple Germans, and me.
Then, deciding we had enough energy to add it into our day's plans, we took a quick walk down into the gorge, exploring the different canyons and feeling hot spring water, and cold spring waterfalls. The signs about flash floods, and the fact that this is Kenya's rainy season was a little worrying, but the strata of the canyon walls (carved by said water) were enough to distract me from this one small fact. This gorge is the result of a prehistoric tributary that fed into a lake in the Great Rift Valley, feeding early humans and animals alike.
And finally back to the start, for a drink and a rest in the shade.
And by "northwest of Kenya," I may perhaps mean "northwest of Nairobi" :) whoops.
ReplyDeleteYeah! Fun! Don't cancel your bike ride across Europe...the roads are smooth there!
ReplyDeleteHey Lee, definitely not cancelling my bike ride, in fact, the bike is bought!!! Exciting. AND, I have bright red panniers :)
ReplyDelete