Over the weekend the our group of 22 went to two of Kenya’s most renowned national parks located outside of Nairobi. After driving for about two hours we stopped at a touristy lookout area that gave us an awesome view of the Great Rift Valley. At the lookout point we could see rolling hills for miles, rocky terrain, and exotic flowers covering the landscape. Then after 30 minutes ride onward, we reached our destination of Longonot. This place is the home of Kenya’s oldest volcano that looks like a giant crater. I mentioned in my first post that while I was flying over Kenya about to land, I remembered seeing a huge crater- now I know it is real and I wasn’t just overly tired imagining things. The group hiked up the side of the crater which was at a steep 60 degree angle that took about 50 minutes then hiked around the entire rim of the crater, which took about 2ish hours. The ascent to the top of the crater was really tough. The trail was covered in sand, ash, and pumas rock (spongy rock that you use for scrubbing feet). Therefore, with every step we would slip and stumble on the very fine sand. The landscape was absolutely gorgeous on the way up. We had a beautiful view of the terrain that had many rifts and open grasslands where we could see zebras in the distance. Once we reached the rim we stopped a little to get our breath- even though we only hiked for 50 minutes we were higher than Mt. Washington.
The hike to the rim was about 6km and around the rim was another 8km- we had a long hike ahead of us. The rim was very mountainous and to get all the way around we have to summit many mini peaks and travel through rocky caves and dodge fire. Because it was so hot out the grassy/dry area on the sides of the crater would often catch on fire! The flames would be bigger than 20 feet so we would have to wait until the wind blew down the crater so the fire would travel and we could safely cross the terrain. Fortunately the fire never lit the path because it was made of sand. The hike around the rim was actually very scary- the path was about 3 feet wide and on either side it went straight down. The crater went for a couple miles downward so falling would be deathly. We all stayed as a group and helped each other through steep uphill climbs and sharp downhills. The total hike was 20km and by the end of it we were all covered in dirt and sweat. The altitude was really difficult to deal with but it was a lot of fun to travel around the crater.
After the hike, a group of 11 wanted to stay and explore the other park- Hell’s Gate. Njau, our driver drove another hour and we found a campsite called the Fisherman’s camp where we rented two large tents. The campsite was beautiful- it have flowers that were overflowing on trees, and a huge lake that is the home of hippos! The owner Moses, offered the whole group a ride on motorboats so we could see the hippos. We took him up on this offer and proceeded to ride around Lake Naivasha for an hour and a half looking at hippos and we saw 20 of them! Their eyes would be peering from above the tops of the water and they’d occasionally twirl their ears around. We even got to see some hippos lounging on land- they’re huge!! We also got a great view of the crater from far away as well as other mountains and valleys. As we were heading back the boat driver noticed some giraffes in the distance. There were about 4 of them with their heads in the trees about 30 feet away! Then ten feet away from the giraffes were water buffalo wading in the water. Thennn on top of that a huge waterbuck appeared! We saw so many wild animals, I couldn’t believe that what I was seeing was real and not just something I saw in a zoo or on tv. Back at the camp baby baboons attached to their mothers would run around looking for loose food campers would leave behind. This place was filled with animals!
In the morning we set off for Hell’s Gate where we rode around on bicycles, on a self-guided safari. After about biking for 20 minutes we spotted a huge group of zebras crowded around a watering hole. As we kept riding zebras would cross the path- they were everywhere and there were so many of them. We got about 20 feet from them! Other animals we saw included gazelles, and baby warthogs. The park had a lot of open grassland dotted with indigenous trees and stone pillars. We also came across a gorge that inspired the makings of the Lion King. At the top of the gorge is Pride Rock and a view of all of Hell’s Gate- a view that additionally inspired the Lion King. It was a long day at Hell’s Gate, we biked for about 5 hours and spent most of our time exploring the caves and gorges. After living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for about 3 meals, we were ready to call it a day and return back to the compound exhausted. In all, it was a great weekend that only cost us $20 USD for a boat ride, admission to Longonot and Hell’s Gate, bike rentals, and tent rentals. We were all amazed at how inexpensive the weekend would and if we were to do this in the US it would have cost is three times more!
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