With our three weeks in Ethiopia behind us, Jon and I flew to Nairobi, Kenya.  Steph was already there. She’d arrived in Kenya five days earlier and climbed Mount Kenya before our planned meet up at Lake Naivasha and Hell’s Gate National Park.  We figured it’d be easiest to meet at the lake to avoid the hassle of coordinating a meet up in Nairobi.  

I texted Steph the minute we landed.  She’d already boarded a matatu in Nairobi that was waiting to fill all its seats before departing.  We cleared customs, had our yellow fever cards checked, gathered our luggage, bought phone cards, hailed a Bolt, drove 25 minutes and made it to the matatu stand where we found Steph still waiting.  At least we could travel together now. We had a great road lunch of doughnuts and fries we bought from some street vendors and were soon on our way.

Fisherman’s Camp

Arriving at Fisherman’s Camp on the lake, we were happy to see there were a few other travellers.  We were staying for four nights and hadn’t met any fellow travellers in a while. When we got to the receptionist’s desk to check-in, Steph was delighted to see they had a ruler on the office desk and asked if she could borrow it.  Curious, we asked why she needed a ruler so badly. She explained that her Thermarest inflatable sleeping mat had developed a defect (a large lump in the middle) and in order to get the company to replace it, she needed to send them it’s exact measurements.  She hadn’t figured out how she would do that until, as though by fate, the ruler appeared.  

Once we’d set up our tents and Steph had measured her Thermarest, we walked to the closest / only local restaurant called Hollywood Restaurant. The only thing on the menu was beans, rice and greens, so we ordered three. It was our first of many meals of BR&G in Kenya.  

Back at camp, we ended our night with a campfire accompanied by duty-free whisky.  An older gentleman came up and started chatting with us. He was English and introduced himself as Crazy Bob.  As you might imagine, he was definitely an odd duck, but a very nice and entertaining guy. He was renting a cottage just up the hill from us and was kind enough to let us use his fridge during our stay. 

We went to bed a little drunk.  At some point in the middle of the night, I was jarred awake by a crazy, loud crashing sound, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.  Disoriented, I crawled half way out of the tent, but it was too dark to see anything. I figured I might be having a weird dream, a side effect of the anti-Malaria pills I was taking, and went back to sleep.  When I woke up the next morning, my hands and sleep mat were covered in pine needles and dirt. Jon and Steph found this quite funny.  

While having our morning tea in the camp restaurant, Crazy Bob came up to tell us how amazed he was by the tree. “What tree?”, we asked.  “That giant tree that fell over in the middle of the night,” he said. It had fallen right on top of the perimeter fence that keeps the hippos out of the camp.  Turns out I wasn’t having a crazy dream after all! We were all a little embarrassed that we had completely failed to notice the giant tree half the park staff were trying to dismantle with saws before Bob had pointed it out.   

While there are many activities one can do around lake Naivasha, a day of relaxation was in order for the three of us.  We paid a reasonable entrance fee to hang out at the Fish Eagle Camp’s pool next door.  

When we got hungry enough, we ventured to a town 30 minutes walk away to find a restaurant and discovered the Royal Cafe.  Of course, the only dish they had was BR&G, but the owner was delightful and she made excellent milk tea. Before leaving, we stocked up on her chapatis for the following day’s bike ride through Hell’s Gate National Park and promised to return. 

Hell’s Gate National Park

Usually, seeing wildlife in Africa involves driving around for hours in a truck, but Hell’s Gate National Park is a unique place where you can ride around on bicycles since there are no predators. Our camp offered a great bike rental service at an affordable price.  

We departed from the camp at 7am for a full day of riding.  Unfortunately, we all somehow missed the sign showing the Elsa’s Gate park entrance only 5km away and instead rode to the Olkaria Gate, about 10km away.  The ride to that gate was fairly challenging with a number of long uphill sections. After paying our fees and entering the park, we found ourselves questioning whether or not we were in the right place.  Large pipelines ran along the hillsides and factories spouting sulfur-smelling smoke were everywhere. This was the strangest national park any of us had been to and, being on our bikes, it felt like we were in a scene from Stranger Things. 

Eventually, we found a turn off to a ranger’s station where a few young men were hanging out.  They offered to give us a tour of two of the parks main attractions, the Gorge and Pride Rock. Hell’s Gate is where the creators of the Lion King were sent to get inspiration for the movie and we weren’t going to pass up on a chance to see the places that inspired the iconic movie from our childhoods.  

We weren’t allowed to walk in the gorge because flash floods had recently killed a number of people.  Pride Rock didn’t really look like the movie version (I discovered later that it may not really have been the inspiration for the movie scene) but the tour was nice and our guide was pleasant.  He gave us directions to a road we could take where we would see some animals. 

It didn’t take long before we spotted a pair of giraffes peacefully grazing on the trees.  A little further down the road we saw some warthogs. Then, we found a group of zebras who were crossing the road (Yes! An actual zebra crossing), allowing us to get pictures with them and our bikes.  Steph and I had both done game drives before, but being able to bike and walk freely amongst the animals with hardly any other people or vehicles around was a very special experience.

We decided to take a detour onto the Buffalo Circuit, a route which added a number of kms to our trip, but would allow us to see more of the park.  Our first goal was to find a picnic spot marked on Maps.Me to have lunch. When we arrived at the spot on the map where the picnic spot was marked there was nothing but a grassy field. We decided it was as good a place as any to have lunch and enjoyed our chapatis from the Royal Cafe with bananas and peanut butter as well as tomato and avocado. These details might sound boring, but a meal in Kenya that is not BR&G is always worth reporting on.

The next section of the circuit was all uphill and with no cloud cover it was swelteringly hot. When we finally got over the hill, we discovered it was a dead end.  The route laid out by Maps.Me simply was not doable by bike. Turning back was a tough pill to swallow, but at least it gave us a thrilling and easy ride downhill past one of the park’s beautiful stone towers.  

Backtracking meant we had to redo part of our ride through the park, but the scenery was beautiful and it gave us another opportunity to see the animals. The road ended at Fisher’s Tower (which you can rock climb if you want) where we rested for a bit and tried to keep Rock Hyrax (the closest known relative to Elephants) from stealing the popcorn we’d brought as a snack. 

We exited the park at Elsa’s Gate and stopped into the Royal Cafe for milk tea.  The owner was delighted we kept our promise. Back at camp, a new couple had arrived and set up their tent near ours so we invited them to join us for a fire.  Crazy Bob showed up as well, and was displeased that we had finished off all the whisky. We told him it was his fault for showing up late and he’d have to settle for a beer. 

Touring the Lake

Our final day at the lake was spent getting chores like laundry and blogging done.  We spent a good hour waiting for morning tea at the camp’s nearly empty restaurant before walking to the Royal Cafe for one last meal with our favourite restaurateur.  We also had to complete a few mundane tasks while we were in town. This included purchasing hot sauce to make the constant meals of BR&G a little more interesting and taking out large amounts of cash to pay for our tour of the Masai Mara starting the following day. 

Jon also managed to find Steph’s next needed item in her Thermarest replacement saga. A Sharpie to write NO WARRANTY across it as per the companies instructions. Normally, Thermarest would make you cut the old one up in a video within a certain time frame of the new one arriving, but Steph wouldn’t have access to the new one (being sent to her Vancouver, BC address) for months, so they settled on the Sharpie solution.  Yes friends, backpacking is not all cocktails,sunsets and beaches. This stuff is part of the daily reality of life on the road.

We ended our evening with a relaxing boat ride around the lake. It took a while for the boat to be navigated out of the thick lake weeds, but once it did, it was a smooth trip on calm waters.  We’re not much for bird watching, but the numerous large and small birds on the lake were undeniably fascinating to watch. We also spotted a few of the resident hippos hanging around on the surface of the water.  We closed out our evening sharing a fire with our friends from the camp, feeling rejuvenated and ready for the next day’s long journey to the Masai Mara.

Lake Naivasha Tour From Fisherman’s Camp

Fisherman’s Camp

Hell’s Gate National Park