Hippos and Hell's Gate

Woke up early and headed out onto Lake Naivasha in three boats to look for some hippos.
I had a great boat, (Tom, Marino, Quinn, Maggie H, and Anu,) and despite our loss in the faux race back to camp, I contend we were still the best boat. Anyway, we saw lots of birds, including the pelicans below and a couple of fish eagles, but the highlight were the hippos. We couldn't get that close (hence the lack of pics), but saw lots of fat hippo bodies, half submerged in the water. And we got a good open mouth yawn at one point.

Then it was back to Fisherman's for a good breakfast and to get ready for the ride into Hell's Gate. Tough to beat Hell's Gate on bike and foot for your first safari experience. I headed out with the first few guys, and our ride to the park entrance (3 miles) was pretty uneventful once Tom figured out how to shift his gears. The fireworks came in the middle group, when Anu took a spill trying to avoid a speed bumb in the road, and then while Q was stopped and helping her, Ted sped up on them without paying attention and the combination of a quick hard brake and the speed bump sent him flying over his handlebars. Miraculously, he was fine, and eventually everyone made it to the entrance ...

though Quinn walked the last few hundred yards.

The ride through the park was again terrific, with tons of zebra, gazelle, and baboons, with the ocasional warthog and giraffe thrown in.

The first giraffes were 50 yards or so off the road, but the guide let the group walk off the road towards them. Not suprisingly, the giraffe's wanted nothing to do with the humans, but there was a great giraffe sighting later, so it wasn't a big deal. We all arrived at the end of the road, grabbed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch (the assemble line sandwich making was definately the way to go, and not just because I didn't thave to make any), and started the hike through the gorge.

The hike was spectacular, as we walked down into a slot canyon and followed it until its bizarre and rather abrupt ending. Lots of small climbs up and down dry (or not so dry) waterfalls, and thanks to Marino and Luke for assisting some of us older, or at least less flexible folk.

Kids had a great time on the hike, running up ahead, finding the paths of greatest resistance, jumping off of things that haven't seemed fun to jump off of in 15 years, but were probably lots of fun when I was their age. We got delayed on one of those waterfalls because there was a group of Kenyan high school kids heading in the opposite direction and they not only went first, but then wanted pictures with a bunch of our Mzungu girls. But eventually we made it out and got back on the bikes to head back.

We had a great giraffe sighting on the way back, right next to the road. And try as Quinn and Scott did to chase them away so nobody else would get to see them (a low point for those two), the giraffes remained there for all of us to see.

All in all, a terrific day in the park. One more night of deliscious pizzas at Fisherman's and then off to Eli's village near Kisimu tomorrow morning.