Hell's Gate National Park

There are lots of back-dated posts I need to do, but for today I'll catch right up to our latest adventure -- our first tent camping trip in Kenya!

Last weekend, our Peace Corps friend, Sara Delaney Studer, joined us for a free weekend she had while on a three-week work trip to East Africa. She flew into Nairobi from Uganda on Friday morning, joining us for our typical Friday night BBQ at the ILRI bar. Then, on Saturday morning we took off by 9am for the 2-hour drive into the Rift Valley to Hell's Gate National Park.

The drive is spectacular. On the way, we descended an escarpment into the Rift Valley, which included views across the valley and Mt. Longonot, a stratovolcano that features an old crater now filled with forest. Someday we'll go do that hike.

Along the terrifying two-lane escarpment road,
there are lots of opportunities to buy sheepskin items.
Not sure how we passed without purchasing one of those hats

We entered Hell's Gate through the Elsa Gate, and were immediately greeted by wildlife. Baboons, zebra, gazelles, and warthogs were EVERYWHERE. One thing that is unique about Hell's Gate is that they don't have any major predator species, so visitors are allowed to hike and bike freely around the park. It feels a lot like a U.S. national park, with people enjoying the park from beyond their cars.

Hello, baby

Warthogs in the foreground, giraffes across the ravine in back

Cape buffalo in the forest; I guess we didn't get the baby in the shot

We stopped to admire the efforts of rock climbers on Fisher's Tower, and the kids made friends with a rock hyrax.

See the hyrax by the tree?

Climber on the rock at center,
kids watching at bottom right

I took over driving for a while, with some help from the kids. We even hopped out of the car to approach some giraffes, because we could (we didn't get too close, don't worry).

After checking out one of the two public campgrounds (scouting for a baboon infestation on the advice of ILRI neighbors -- no baboons were found), we headed to Oljorawa Gorge for a hike. Our guide was Muhammad, who earned his fee by helping us carry the kids through the really steep parts of the gorge. We had a picnic lunch of crepes and Nutella, Babybel cheese, apples, arrowroot chips, and raw almonds in the gorge, too.

Lunch in the gorge

Cora and Muhammad find tadpoles

Our guide was so impressed with adventurous Cora that he started calling her Simba

Killer moves

Photo credit: Muhammad

The steep exit climb after descending for a couple hours

After the hike, the kids passed out in Nate's lap in the back of the car (I really wish I had a photo of this) while we got ourselves lost and even accidentally drove out of the park at one point. Somehow we eventually did find the place we were looking for -- the Ol Dubai campsite, as recommended by another ILRI neighbor for the potential of having zebras and impala grazing around your tent in the morning. That didn't happen for us, at least as far as we know since we slept in late the next morning. But the campsite had much better facilities than we expected, and we had a wonderful time there. 

Setting up camp

 

Silas REALLY enjoyed the dusty campsite

Our campsite looked out over the Hell's Gate valley

For dinner, we cooked steaks and veggies kabobs over the fire on a custom-made BBQ grill from Ngong Road (the place you go in Nairobi if you want something made to your specifications from wood, metal, or textiles). Nate served us gin and tonics and the kids went to bed after a wash down at the water tap. In the night, we heard what we thought was hyena. Cora had a stomach ache through a lot of the night (thus our sleeping in in the morning) but she was fine and we think it was just gas. In the morning, I made French toast over the fire, served with breakfast potatoes and papaya.

As Nate wrote on FB: Jen Keller Jensen is surrounded by hyenas, buffalo and warthogs
at the gates of hell, and what is she doing? Making French toast.

We missed out on a trip to the hot springs pools at Hell's Gate, but certainly we will be back. Thank you, Sara, for joining us on this first camping excursion, for being such a good sport, and for sharing your photos. See you soon in Kenya, we hope!