While planning your Kenya safari, try and include Hell's Gate National park
in Naivasha. I went there with my family 2 years ago and i have decided to tell
everybody about this wonerful place in Kenya. We went on a 8 days safari
including Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha (Hell's gate) and finished our
safari in Samburu National park. Our agent "Inside Africa Budget Safaris" told
us that Hells gate was part of the itenerary, we didnt say no since she was the
expert. Let me tell you more about this wonerful place called Hells Gate and the
history which we gathered from the locals there.
Hell's Gate National Park is a tiny park
located between Naivasha Lake and Longonot and Suswa volcanoes and it is an
ideal venue for a weekend retreat far from the urban life of Nairobi.The park
provides a variety of wildlife, unusual flora and many species of birds and is
one of the two only kenyan parks where climbing, walking and biking are
allowed.Hell's Gate in Naivasha is an ideal getaway place enroute to Lake
Nakuru or the Masai Mara.Visitors here have the choice of driving while game
vieing, camping, cycling and rock climbing. Naivasha town is the second coast
and to the majority who can not make it or afford the beaches and the white
sand, this is the place to be.Hell's Gate National Park is a beautiful park that
has bufalloes, gazelles, zebras, giraffe and ostrich among others. The park got
its name after a narrow break in the cliffs, once a tributary of a prehistoric
lake that fed early humans in the Rift Valley.Despite its name,
Hell's Gate, given by the explorers Fisher and Thomson (1883) after their defeat
against the hostile Maasai warriors, the park is a peaceful area where you can
walk or do biking alongside towering cliffs and wild
animals.
Hell's Gate stand in a class of its own, visitors here
have the choice of driving, walking, camping, cycling and rock - climbing within
the park while horseback safaris can also be arranged.For nature lovers, the
entrance to the gorge is a perfect place for breakfast before descending for a
gorgeous walk in this old canyon.Some of the spectacular scenerary in the park
includes the towering cliffs water - gouged gorges, stark of rock towers,
scrub-clad volcanoes and the rising plumes of geothermal stream.
On entering the the park, one is welcomed by the 25m high
Fischers tower that rise high in the sky and which is used by novices in rock
climbing to the highest point of the tower with the help of trained guides. The
jugged volcanic plug is all that remains of an ancient volcano and its named
after the German explorer Gustav Fischer.According to the Maasai who claim that
the park was their ancestral land, the rock is petrified figure of a chief's
daughter. The story goes that the girl was on her way to get married and was
warned against looking behind lest she would turn into a rock. And just like the
story of Sodom and Gomorah, she went against the instruction and took one last
glance at her home and the tower is a reminder of what happened to her, she
turned into a rock.
According to palmeris, the rock offers excellent climbing
and is a home to a colony of rock hyrax among other small animals. The towering
cliffs and undulating grasslands provide one of the few remaining places where
one can walk alongside herds of bufallo, zebra and giraffes.Deeper into the
lodge is the lower gorge that offers an opportunitry to explore the long,
winding, deeper curves of the Ol Njorowe Gorge. In here water hot water springs
which some claims are medicinal for those with skin diseases can be found and
the tour for the strong hearted is breathtaking. The rising steam from various
parts of the park is a clear indication of the geothermal power.
For bird lovers, this is just the perfect place for you,
an incredible 103 species of birds have been recorded in the park. The massive
cliff in the park provide a home for thousands of swift birds as well as unique
breeding ground for vulture, augur buzzard, verreaux eagle and the rare
Lamergeyer vulture. There is the Mervyn carnelly raptor hide, which is a unique
bird viewing hide that incorparates a one way window. This allows visitors to
view and photograph the raptors, which are birds of prey atexceptionally close
range.
Discover this wonderful place while in Kenya.
John Schuff is a traveller. For more info about this visit
http://www.insideafricatravel.com