One of the best day’s I have had thus far in my travels was spent at Hell’s Gate National Park near Lake Naivasha, Kenya. It is a beautiful park located in the Great Rift Valley. Aside from the amazing landscape, what makes Hell’s Gate so wonderful is that you can go through it on foot or with a mountain bike.

I rented a mountain bike from the camp I was staying at and set out bright and early in the morning. It was 2.5km from the camp to the turnoff for the park and by the time I got there I realized I was definitely out of shape for biking and would be feeling it the next day. The next 2km to the park entrance was even more difficult. The road was at a slight incline and there were lots of rocks, gravel, and sand – rough riding. I had to walk my bike part way and was thinking that I might be better off walking through the park rather than riding. Happily, I took my bike into the park where the riding was much easier. Most of the park was flat and there was not too much sand on the roads.

It was also a fairly easy ride because I was stopping every few minutes to look at something. Almost right away I spotted some animals off in the distance. I couldn’t quite tell what they were so I stopped and pulled out my binoculars. There were antelope (gazelle’s, probably Thompson’s), zebra, and ostrich. Already I was pleased. I was hoping that I would get to see some animals more close-up, but even if I didn’t I would go home, well, back to camp, happy.

And, really, the animals were not necessary to make it a good day. The landscapes were beautiful, and as my guide-book says, dramatic. There were wide open, flat, green, plains. In some areas the park was slightly wooded – lots of acacia trees, which have lots of large thorns. And all around were cliffs, although I do not think that is quite the right term. But huge hills that look like the side of the Grand Canyon – layers upon layers of sediments. There were also a couple of “towers” of volcanic rocks. The terrain was stunningly beautiful.

In addition to the landscape there were tons of animals. I was probably stopping every 10 minutes or so on average to look at the animals through my binoculars or to take photos of them. Everywhere – herds of zebra. Often they were only a few meters away from me. They were not very afraid of me, though you had to keep 5-10 meters away from them or they’d walk away from you. An interesting observation about zebras – they know how cameras work and they do not like to be photographed. I cannot even count the number of times that I saw zebra on the side of the road and had them turn to watch me as I approached. Then I would stop my bike and take out my camera and they could continue to watch me. I would turn it on and zoom in and they would still be staring. I would bring the camera up and get ready to snap a picture and the zebra would turn away. Had it been my ambition, I could probably have the world’s greatest photographic collection of zebra butts based on my one day in Hell’s Gate alone. My best zebra moments were: hearing them bray, watching a foal nursing, watching a couple foals frolicking, running, seeming to be playing, and having a few zebra passing probably about 7 or 8 meters in front of me.

But enough about the zebra – on to the antelope. Turns out there were actually 2 types of antelope: the gazelles and what I believe were eland. Both were quite abundant, though I think there were more gazelle. The best antelope moment of the day was riding close to an eland which was only about 10 or 15 meters away. He didn’t seem to want me in his territory and I think the noises he was making were to warn me off.

Also very abundant in the park were warthog. I saw lots of mothers with their young. They are so neat looking when their tails are sticking straight up in the air. It was also fun to watch them eating which they do while down on their front knees. The best warthog moment was watching a mother with her babies while she was watching me. I think she was wary of me and when she moved all her babies would follow her in a line, tails straight up in the air.

With all my stops it took me about two hours to ride the 7km from the gate to the ranger’s station. At the station I arranged for a guide to take me on a three hour hike through the gorge in the park and to see the hot springs. Again, the scenery was beautiful. In some areas the rock walls were rounded and you could definitely tell that water had cut its way through at some point in the past, though you could still see the striations in the rock. The way down into the gorge was very steep and slippery at many points. Quite a few times I needed my guide to lend me a hand to keep from falling. We saw hot water cascading down and a small pool of water known for being able to cook an egg in five minutes. There was one area up a hill with pretty multi-colored rocks – mostly shades of red. The same area had steam rising up out of it. We then went to see a small hot spring where the water was actually boiling. We then headed back to the ranger station, stopping at a view point where the view was, as expected, beautiful.

After a relaxing picnic and rest at the ranger station, I began the 7km bike ride back to the park’s entrance. I was tired and I thought that the ride back was going to be horrible because I remembered a few down-hill areas on the ride into the park. Happily, the ride back was only slightly more difficult than the ride in. The ride back was less exciting than the ride in, but there were still a few good highlights.

At one point I stopped to watch some antelope and zebra. As I was getting on my bike to continue on I looked behind me and – lo and behold – there was a herd of something that hadn’t been there five minutes earlier. I looked through my binoculars and – buffalo! Since I hadn’t seen any earlier in the day I rode back to watch them. I stopped probably about 20 meters away to watch. There were a ton of them crossing the road. I didn’t want to get too close because buffalo can be quite dangerous. So when they looked as if they might be wandering in my direction, I decided that it was a good time to continue on to the park’s entrance.

I rode for a while longer and then got to one of the columns of volcanic rock called Fischer’s Tower. I knew it was close to the gate and there were picnic tables so I stopped for a banana break and a short rest. I tossed my banana peel on the ground because that is what one does in East Africa. I then watched some birds for a while – they got quite close – including one brilliant yellow and black one. I was then preparing to leave when three hyraxes (rodent-y looking creatures whose closest relatives are actually elephants) came out of the bush and ate my banana peel. They were not at all frightened of me and got so close that my camera would not even take their picture.

The rest of the ride back to the gate was uneventful. From the gate to the road though, well, the most difficult riding of the whole day was the 2 km from the road to the gate in the morning. Going back to the road was no cakewalk either. It was slightly downhill through lots of sandy and rocky areas. I hardly had to pedal the whole way – just when I was going through the sand – but it was a rough, bumpy ride and I almost lost control a couple of times. Happily, I managed to stay on the bike and was back at the road after almost no time at all.