Hiking in Naivasha

At the beginning of the week, Lisa (from the Netherlands) as well as Rhett and Nic (both from Australia) and I joined forces 💪 to go to Lake Naivasha and it’s surroundings.

Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake outside the town of Naivasha, which lies approximately 2 hours (with the car) north west of Nairobi. It is situated in the Great Rift Valley.
With only 6000 KES (around 40 EURs respectively 10 EURs per person) for the ride with Uber 🚙 from Nairobi, we had found an affordable option to get there. The driver even handed his phone 📱 to us and let us pick YouTube videos for the music that was being played in the car. So, we had a pretty enjoyable ride.
Although our group of 4 has joined forces, we managed to stay in 3 different accommodations - each one on an opposite side of the lake. 🤦
The Camp Carnelleys had been recommended to me before and turned out to be a pretty good option. But our first stop was Rhett’s and Nic‘s hotel - the „El Sueño“ since it was the closest to the jetty where the boat rides 🚤 on the lake depart from. We have been there at lunchtime and were looking for something to eat. I didn’t notice it first but we were the only tourists in the area. It didn’t take long until we were approached by one of the many men 🧍🏿‍♂️ that connect you with a boat captain. After some negotiations the price for the boat ride was settled at 1000 KES per person (a little more than 6 EURs). The man could help us also with lunch. We opted all for french fries 🍟; Lisa and I even shared a fish that was just caught that day making the meal sort of a delicious African version of fish and chips 😅 we had our lunch right next to the very lively „Wembley Stadium Bar“. The locals that stumbled out of that bar were generally completely drunk 🥴 but one particular guy stood out. He was so waisted that he had to be carried by others since he couldn’t even crawl out of that place. They tried for a while to sit him on a motorbike 🏍️ but eventually they gave up. It was an entertaining lunch break but we were also lucky to get out of there for our boat ride. With the boat 🚤 we went to the Hippo point and immediately spotted some in the water. Afterwards we continued to Crescent Island which is situated in the lake and hosts a number of wildlife species - most of them I had already seen in Masai Mara but since the the islands does not host any predators you can walk around 🚶 and get up close to the animals, if they let you. After an hour or so walking with our guide on Crescent Island and seeing ostriches, baboons, gazelles, zebras, wildebeests, monkeys and giraffes we were picked up with the boat 🚤 again and returned to the jetty where we enjoyed a cold beer. 🍺
The it was time to return to our accommodations. At Camp Carnelleys, I stayed in a 8-bed dorm (for 20 USD a night) but I had the room for the entire time to myself. 🤷‍♂️ All other guests seemed to be coming to this camp as part of their safari and had their own private rooms (for at least 60 USD and up to 300 USD).
In the south of Lake Naivasha there are only flower farms 🌹, restaurants and lodges. When I arrived at my camp the sun had almost set already and it was getting dark. I didn’t feel adventurous enough to go outside the camp and try to find a supermarket or similar - also because the distances were vast there. Instead, I tested the restaurant 🍽️ of the camp. A beetroot and goat cheese salad with lots of further high-quality ingredients as well as a white white wine later and I was stuffed. 🫃The food was pretty good but also quite pricey for Kenia. I didn’t do much more that evening and went to bed early. On the next day we had planned to meet one another at „Elsa’s Gate“ - the main entrance to „Hell's Gate“ National Park - at 9 am and that meant I had to get up at 7.30 am. 😴

Hell's Gate 👹 is a small national park (only 70 square km) that lies south of Lake Naivasha. According to our guide Benjamin, it got its name due to the active volcanic activity (eruptions and even hot lava shooting out of the ground from underneath) which the Masai could not explain and therefore just called hell. 🤷‍♂️ There is even a river named „Styx“ running through the national park. According to Greek mythology, that is the main underworld river that the ferryman „Charon“ would take the souls of the dead across into Hades. 👻 Apparently, there are various places on the surface of the earth that have acquired a legendary reputation for being entrances to the underworld. Often they are found in regions of unusual geological activity, particularly volcanic areas, or sometimes at lakes, caves, or mountains - like in Kenya. 😄
The scenery is actually quite spectacular. So much so that parts of the „Lion King“ and „Lara Croft: Tomb Raider“ have been filmed in the park. And after many hours of Safari and traveling in a car during the past days, Hell’s Gate was particularly appealing to me since it’s the only national park in Kenya that can be cycled 🚴 and hiked 🥾- in all other places you need a car and guide to drive you around.
As I wrote earlier, Rhett, Nic, Lisa and I met around 9 am at Hell‘s Gate. Lisa arrived with two more travelers from her homestay - Kaily and Wim (from Belgium). So, the 6 of us rented bicycles and a guide to explore the park. This was the second time I am cycling within days - Lisa’s Dutch influence was starting to rub off on me. 😜
Our first stop was Fischer's Tower - a testament to the volcanic activity in this area. 🌋It is a 40 m high tower of cooled lava that was once pushed up from the ground and it was really standing out in the landscape.
Then we cycled further south on the dusty road 😮‍💨 passing by huge plateaus to the left and right which made the rift very recognisable. Our destination was Hell's Gate Gorge - the main attraction of the park. Though officially closed due to an accident in 2018 that had cost some tourists their lives, our guide was willing to take us through the gorge - for some extra pocket money. 😜🤫
It was an adventure to hike through the gorge: we had to crawl through narrow sections of the vegetation, lower ourselves down on a rope 🪢 and hike up some trails through the bushes to some viewpoints. Afterwards, we took our bicycles again and made our way back on the official routes. It was only 2 pm and we had payed the entrance as well as the bicycles for the whole day. So, we stayed a little longer in the hope to see some more animals later in the afternoon and we were lucky - we at least saw a herd of buffalo’s 🐃 as well as a herd of warthogs. Although the park is known for its wide variety of wildlife, I left it somehow with the feeling that I didn’t see many animals. Maybe I was still a bit spoiled by Masai Mara. 😅 At 4 pm we had seen enough and went back to each of our accommodations. That gave me time to see my camp in daylight - so far, I had seen it only in the dark. I walked around a bit and found even two young hippos 🦛 playfully fighting at the lakeside. Their older family members could not be bothered and just chilled in the water.
The evening I spent again in the restaurant of the Camp Carnelley’s. It was the only place in the camp where there is WiFi. I was watching an interesting YouTube video 🎥 interviewing Harvard Professor Daniel Lieberman with regards to his studies in Africa for the human evolution since the hunter gatherer times and how our modern day life causes many wide-spread diseases like cancer, heart disease 🫀or arthritis (see https://youtu.be/A-8tPmQtYqs).

On the next day, our group set out for a hike of Mount Longonot. It is a stratovolcano 🌋located southeast of Lake Naivasha. Stratovolcanoes have relatively steep sides and are more cone-shaped than shield volcanoes because they are formed from viscous, sticky lava that does not flow easily and therefore builds up around the vent. 🤓
The volcano is thought to have last erupted in the 1860s but today it is dormant.
We started our hike 🥾 at the entrance gate which is around 2150 m above see level and followed the 3.1 km trail that runs from the park entrance up to the crater rim. Already during this first bit we have been challenged by very steep and heavily eroded parts of the trail. 🥵 When we arrived at the crater rim we were happy but realised quickly that were only at 2560 m and yet had a considerable height to climb up to the top. The highest point of elevation is at approximately 2780 m (9200 ft). So, we took a rest before we would continue to hike the crater rim. Suddenly, a labrador 🐕 showed up asking for food. We shared a little bit with her and that earned us her unconditional companionship for the next hours. We named her “Beth” since we were joking about nicknames earlier and one of Lisa’s nicknames in school has been “Beth”. 😄
Hiking the crater rim was pretty exhausting but we made to the top and the view was quite rewarding. 🥳 Although the top is only 220 m higher than the entry point of the crater rim, we had to go up and down a lot. As you can see in the screenshot that I took from “Organic Maps” (great mobile app, btw), the total vertical difference we hiked that day added up to over 1000 m up and 600 m down. The track was only 9 km long but with all the breaks in between it took us 5-6 hours to complete it. “Beth” 🐕 was still with us when we arrived at the campsite that was close to the exit. But after the hike it was time to say goodbye 👋 - not only to “Beth” but also to the others. Since the rhinos and flamingos at only 1-hour away Lake Nakuru were so close, I couldn’t refuse to take the opportunity and see them. Rhett wanted to stay a day longer in Naivasha, Lisa as well as Nic wanted to go back to Nairobi and Kaily & Wim would start their safari in Masai Mara on the next day. Some of them I will probably see in Nairobi again. 😄

So, my next post will be from Lake Nakuru. Until then - happy hiking! 🥾Read more