Yet in actual fact, Kenya's National Park, "Hell's Gate", could not be further from the images conjured up by its name!
We visited Hell's Gate National Park two weeks ago. It is just over two hours drive from Nairobi. It is a peaceful, open savannah, surrounded by towering, red-stone cliffs and filled with quietly grazing, beautiful animals.
There are no threatening lions or large predators in this park, so visitors are allowed the freedom of climbing out of their vehicles to wander among the game. We took full advantage of this amazing opportunity on the cool, rainy morning when we visited:
As the sun came out, Ben ventured as close as he could before the timid animals bolted:
Later in the afternoon, after our picnic lunch (in a spot frequented by cheeky baboons) we drove a little further on and surprised a hyena running across the grasslands:
I have to say, we were a little taken aback by his presence! We were not expecting to meet a hyena in a park where the rangers had assured us that it was perfectly safe to walk around with our children! Thankfully we were in the vehicle at that point, but since our encounter with Mr. Hyena, we made some inquiries and have been told that they are most unlikely to attack. As scavengers, they rarely initiate an attack.
All in all, we had a fantastic day out at Hell's Gate!
We rounded off our day-trip with a family photo, by the VW van which kind friends in Nairobi had lent us for the trip.
After exiting Hell's Gate, we returned to overnight at Carnelly's Camp on the banks of impressive Lake Naivasha. We had stayed here as a family back in April 2014. It was good to see that the hippos are still in evidence...
We braved the warning above, edged past the sign and were rewarded with this close-up sighting from the safety of a wooden jetty:
As darkness fell, we were treated to more amazing sights from Nature, as we looked up into the dark night of rural Kenya and spotted some quick-fire shooting stars. Suddenly, an exclamation from Ben alerted us to the most incredible comet, zipping across the velvet night in a blaze of white-hot, red-tinged glory. It was over so fast- too fast for a photo! I have never seen anything so startling- a falling ball of fire with such a long, bright tail zooming across the night skies. We "oohed" and "ahhed" in wonder! What an AMAZING sighting!
Andrew built a roaring campfire for us to enjoy, where we could recount our day's adventures at Hell's Gate and look forward to our next day's outing...but that's another blog-post!
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