kenya: hells gate
so, after our wonderfully peaceful and relaxing camping trip, we decided to pass hells gate, one of our favorite hikes on the way back home. in fact, its strange i have never done a blog on it before. hells gate is a small national park, close to naivasha (where we usually camp) and has quite a bit of wildlife.
the cool thing in this park is that you can get out and walk around, or ride in a bike or whatever. we found this family of warthogs and, unusually for warthogs, they didnt run away. instead mama warthog ran up to papa warthog for a loving snuggle...
and then kindly asked his family to pose for a family portrait for me.
BUT the real highlight of this park is not the animals. nope, the true highlight of this park is the absolutely brilliant cavern? canyon? gorge that you can hike down. it starts out as a tiny stream then gradually gets deeper and deeper, until it is a more of a canyon - towering walls on either side. here are some of the bits you see as you go down.
incidentally, most of the time you are actually walking in the stream - at some points we got pretty wet.
gradually the gorge gets wider and deeper and wider and deeper...some of the water is warm from volcanic activity. in fact there is a geothermal power generation plant (apparently the first in africa) within the park. sometimes you can hear steam escaping the ground in a hiss.
after the worst of the wet bits, some had to put their shoes back on...
and the triumphant group at the end of the hike!
at the end we were tired but happy after an absolutely beautiful hike through this park. we will definitely be back for more.
the cool thing in this park is that you can get out and walk around, or ride in a bike or whatever. we found this family of warthogs and, unusually for warthogs, they didnt run away. instead mama warthog ran up to papa warthog for a loving snuggle...
and then kindly asked his family to pose for a family portrait for me.
BUT the real highlight of this park is not the animals. nope, the true highlight of this park is the absolutely brilliant cavern? canyon? gorge that you can hike down. it starts out as a tiny stream then gradually gets deeper and deeper, until it is a more of a canyon - towering walls on either side. here are some of the bits you see as you go down.
incidentally, most of the time you are actually walking in the stream - at some points we got pretty wet.
gradually the gorge gets wider and deeper and wider and deeper...some of the water is warm from volcanic activity. in fact there is a geothermal power generation plant (apparently the first in africa) within the park. sometimes you can hear steam escaping the ground in a hiss.
after the worst of the wet bits, some had to put their shoes back on...
and the triumphant group at the end of the hike!
at the end we were tired but happy after an absolutely beautiful hike through this park. we will definitely be back for more.
