Lake Naivasha

So in what hopes to be one of many weekend trips, I finally got away from Kisumu and spent some time traveling around Kenya. I met a great group of people my age here at CDC and Walter Reed in Kisumu and we decided to spend the weekend traveling backpack style and it quickly turned into an adventure. We caught a matatu out of Kisumu. For those unaware a matatu is like a large van with about 14 seats. Only difference is they drive like crazy and at high speeds.

The countryside is gorgeous. We drove through Kericho which is tea country in Kenya. There is just miles and miles of tea as far as you can see and people dotted along the landscape hand picking it. Beautiful. We arrived to Nakuru, an hour from our final destination, and was greeted to a huge traffic jam. As this is common in Kenya, I didn't think much about it until people started filling out of their cars and lining the roads. So we joined the crowd as they say and were surprised to find out the president was coming through. My luck again. Three feet away from the president of Kenya. I would have taken a picture but as that's against the law and I didn't have the guts alas sorry no picture of the president.

It was back into the matatu until we finally reached Lake Naivasha. After a long day of traveling (almost 6 hours) we rented out some bunk beds at this great little camping place on the lake and planted ourselves in the restaurant/bar till midnight that night. The following morning we charted a boat onto the lake and I got some breathtaking pictures as you can see. Definitely worth the little sleep!

Then it was on to Hell's Gate National Forest and yes it does live up to its name. Its a beautiful reserve where wild game can come right up to the road and mountain climbers can scale the huge cliffs. We rented some bikes and biked the 6.2km to the gorge. From there we hired a guide and started down the gorge. Now when they say 1 hour 30 minute hike I was thinking great were going to be on a nice trail that goes gradually down into the gorge and just walk through. NOPE. First few steps where two strategic jumps that landed you at the bottom. Yeah needless to say it was challenging and there were definitely a few times where I looked at our guide and asked if he was serious. But I can with all honesty that the view at the end and all the while in between were worth it. I'd even do the 6.2 km bike ride out of the park again, minus the bike breaking down on the way to and from :) Needless to say we had an adventure...

(According to our guide) the top four reasons they call it Hell's Gate:

1. If it starts raining you have approximately 1 hour to get out of the gorge before the water reaches 3 meters. This is virtually impossible.

2. The gorge is made of sandstone making it unstable. Our guide: " You can't climb here the rocks are falling." Me: "Then why are we hiking here?"

3. The gorge sits on a fault line. This translates to occasional volcanic activity resulting in cracks and crevices and sporadic vents. Lets just add earth quake to the list here. Did I mention that they just had an earthquake in Kenya. 5.0 Not huge but I felt it!

4. Oh wait, it is a volcano. Sure its been dormant for over 200 years, but its not extinct. So there's always that possibility right...