Hell's Gate

Our first wildlife adventure was one of the best things I've ever experienced! I was so excited I could hardly contain myself! Matt and I went up north of Nairobi to lake Naivasha, which is about an hour's car ride away. Anyhow, there's a wildlife park there called Hell's Gate National Park and is located in Africa's Rift Valley.

After going to the town of Naivasha to stock up on supplies, we showed up at the gate to the park where we found a rather large gathering of cars. I guess Matt and I didn't pick the best time to go as this past Friday was a national holiday (Kenyatta Day). But, I volunteered Matt to go up in line as he was a much more intimidating presence than I was! That didn't stop people from trying to budge in front though! We waited a good hour at the gate I think before we entered the park! It was crazy! Once we did get in though, we were surrounded by steep cliffs on either side of us and what seemed to be endless grasslands dotted with low shrubs and the odd Acacia tree. Our first animal sighting was zebra! It was so exciting to know that the animals were wild and free to roam! Matt and I then turned off the main trail to our camp site which was actually situated midway up the cliffs. On our way up we spotted a small family of warthogs, a mother and 3 of her little children! So cute! They were very skittish though and it was hard to get a good picture of them. After setting up camp, we went back down to finish the circuit of the park. That day we ended up seeing zebra, warthogs, gazelles, hartebeests, and elands. Then towards the end of the day we ended up seeing my first giraffe! So impressive! And so large! I didn't expect them to be so big. It was almost like stumbling upon a brontosaurus or something.

The next day, Matt and I woke up early to get a good sunrise in and to finish the other side of the park. There, we ran into African buffalo, more of everything we saw yesterday and a family of giraffes! We were able to get quite close...it was amazing! Then we took a drive through a shrub/acacia forest. It was beautiful. On our way out we thought the new animal sightings were over, when we looked to our left and saw a whole field of babboons! It was insane! There was even a baby riding on one of the mothers' backs! So funny!

All in all, it was a pretty amazing trip. I can't wait for all our other future trips! I think the next adventure will be at Nakura National Park! I'll keep you all posted! Miss all of you and hope you're all doing well!!