Lake Naivasha, Kenya - Day 156 - Boots on the Loose

Plane back from Lamu to Nairobi was delayed 3 hours; sat there at the outdoor airport in the 42C heat 🙁 Fun. Got to Nairobi and watching the news found out there was an airplane crash at the airport that day. Suppose the delay was understandable in that case. (nothing major – instructor and student that survived)

Next day was full of errands as you do when you get to big cities like Nairobi; that night we met Jen’s x-coworker (who now lives in Nairobi) for dinner at the world-famous Carnivores. Friend of course was very nice (named Michelle), Carnivores was… good, but slightly disappointing for the amount of money it cost (around $40USD/person). You get a little white flag that you take down when you want them to stop bringing meat around. Used to have all sorts of exotic meats, but nowadays all you get is crocodile and ostrich meatballs (but I had some chicken wings for the first time since leaving home!!! Mmmmm…..)

Were gonna leave the next day to meet the others but then our Dragoman truck from Libya showed up so we ended up stayng 1 more night. Finally made it into downtown for a
walk; kinda reminded me of a large, rough version of Edmonton back in the 80’s. Streets filled with people dressed in business suites, nothing feeling dangerous in any way of course. Hung with the Drago crew back at the campsite for the night; quite sure it won’t be the last time we see them on this trip!

Hopped in a morning matatu (african minibus) bound for Lake Naivasha, bags crammed into the tiny spae between our seats. Only about 1 1/2 hours out of Nairobi; just before reaching the turn off, road beautifully overlooks an old volcano set beside the lake. Driver told Jen and I to hop out and go get a different matatu or taxi to our campsite around the other side of the lake. Made it out after another hour or so and found the gang in the campsite restaurant; they’d been at the campsite for a few days already which was a shame as it was very nice and I could have spent a couple days there myself…

During the extra time Jen and I spent on Lamu, the others had gone and done a 3 day safari in the Maasai Mara National Park; Jen and I didn’t because (other than wanting to stay in paradise longer) we were planning on doing one in Tanzania instead. Anyway, sounded very nice and of course had plenty of great wildlife photos to show (good to see Seymour with his old buddies).

Got a bungalow to put our bags in and went to rent bicycles to head to Hells Gate National Park which is about 7km down the road and one of the few parks in Africa that you can actually walk or ride a bike through! Park was FILLED with zebra, saw 4 or 5 giraffe, lots of gazelle, warthogs. Apparently there are leopards and cheetahs that come out after dark as well. Quite surprised how difficult it is to get to any of them; even quietly walking on foot they’re very aware of you and run away when you get too close (man do giraffes look funny when they run!). The zebras have the hugest, meatiest looking butts ever; if I was a lion, those would be the animals I’d be eating for sure. Warthogs were pretty funny… whenever we’d approach they’d spaz out and run away. Grumpy looking bastards.

8km into the park got to the gorge. We decided to try to find it without a guide but got lost pretty much immediately so we paid a Maasai guy to show us around for about an hour. At the bottom of the gorge are some hotsprings which the villagers use for cooking and bathing . Showed us some eggs they’ve got sitting in the rocks boiling away; probably the hottest spring water I’ve ever felt. Walking down the gorge there were a few spots that were a bit hairy to get through; one you had to scale down the rock face and through a waterfall to pass (lucky we had the guide). Brought us around to the top to enjoy the view and headed back as the sun was moving quickly (as was a storm off in the distance). Talking to one of the rangers where we had left the bikes he asked if we saw the Black Mambo he he killed that morning (Yikes!)

Back at the park gate, clouds had rolled in and it started to spit a little so I asked the guard how much time we had; said we maybe had 15 minutes so unconvinced we set off to do the 2kms to the main road. Perhaps 1 minute passed and it turned to rain and I said to Jen, “We should go back” but we kept going and maybe another 2 minutes later it was time to desparately find a tree because I could no longer keep my eyeballs exposed. So needless to say it was a long, hot shower back at the bungalow…

As we sat waiting for dinner, a whole pod of hippos showed up out front to dine with us (maybe 8 of them?) including a couple young ones (out of the water walking around I mean…); what an amazing sight… bartender said he rarely sees so many out and walking around like that. There’s a little electric fence that apparently they know not to touch so you can walk out and get pretty close (I’ve heard this exact scenario is what kills the most people in Africa (by wildlife, that is)). Great day!